Carol Girard, MA, Boston University School of Public Health, Join Together, 1 Appleton Street, 4th Floor, Boston, MA 02116, 617-437-1500, carol@jointogether.org

In 2002, Join Together, a project of Boston University School of Public Health, selected 29 communities to be part of Demand Treatment, a national initiative to increase the number of people receiving quality treatment for substance use disorders. The communities received financial support and technical assistance to develop comprehensive strategies to increase the number of people receiving quality treatment for substance use disorders.

A team from Rochester, NY, was one of the few communities that engaged wide range of individuals and organizations, including a private insurer, the regional consortium of treatment providers, hospital systems, the local medical society, and others, to deliver a strategy to increase screenings and brief interventions in office-based physician practices throughout the region.

This presentation will explain the national partnership, activities by other communities, and the Rochester team’s specific accomplishments. The presentation will also describe how other communities can learn from Rochester’s endeavors, acknowledging the area’s unique employer and insurer forces and the emerging political landscape that helped make this program succeed.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the national initiative to drive up the demand for treatment at a community level.
• Articulate how one community engaged a combination of individuals and organizations to engage local physicians in screening and brief intervention.
• Apply lessons from this community to other interested communities.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.