PARCKA faculty and staff work to support improving access to quality health care for persons who have a substance use disorder. Advocacy work within PARCKA also supports prevention efforts to reduce substance use and mitigate the individual, family, and societal harms associated with substance use.

PARCKA Pilot Grant Award Program

The PARCKA Pilot Grant Award Program (PGAP) provides grant awards to enable faculty and staff to initiate novel initiatives and research activities within the scope of PARCKA. The goal of the PARCKA Pilot Grant Award Program is to enable faculty and trainees to obtain information, data, and results that can help them to prepare for major research grant submissions to the National Institutes of Health, Veterans Affairs, and other agencies or to initiate new directions in addiction-related clinical care, education, or advocacy activities. The PARCKA Pilot Grant Award Program is intended to assist junior faculty or trainees or more senior faculty or trainees who are exploring new addiction-related topics in anticipation for larger grant awards.

PGAP Webpage

PARCKA PARLEYS

PARCKA PARLEYS are a monthly seminar series focusing on various topics around addiction, held the 3^rd Tuesday of each month. A light lunch is provided to attendees who RSVP. There are over 150 potential attendees on the listserve that receive PARCKA PARLEYS announcements each month. In October 2018, CME credits started being offered. In March 2019, we started live streaming.

To find out more about PARCKA PARLEYS follow the link below:

PARCKA PARLEYS information

"Addiction 101 in Family Practice" Summary July 2018

Salt Lake County Health Department (SLCoHD), Opioid Program, and The Program of Addiction, Research, Clinical Care and Advocacy (PARCKA) from the University of Utah Division of Epidemiology, joined in efforts to train family practice providers in the Salt Lake Valley in July 2018. Invitations were sent out through professional organizations: Utah Medical Association, Utah Nurse Practitioners Network, The Utah Academy of Physician Assistants, Utah Academy of Family Physicians, Association of Utah Community Health Centers, Utah Hospital Association, University of Utah (Community Clinics & Internal Medicine, Continuing Medical Education Office sent to all providers who have taken the online opioid training), as well as some local practices were reached out to.

SLCoHD received funding through a grant with the Utah Department of Health, the Community-Level Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention Grant. One of the grant objectives is to coordinate with local health systems to schedule provider trainings on opioid prescribing issues, controlled substance database use and best practices for reducing unintended deaths from prescription opioids. This provided a perfect opportunity for SLCoHD and PARCKA to coordinate and collaborate. PARCKA coordinated with University of Utah Continuing Medical Education Office to provide AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM for those that attended the training.

SLCoHD was able to provide funds for meals and continuing medical education credit fees. The venues chosen for the trainings were Salt Lake County owned facilities so there were no fees. SLCoHD opioid staff coordinated the venues, lunches, registration, and assisted with advertising.

Read the Addiction 101 Roundtables Report

PARCKA Donated Resources:

• 1. Administration: Meeting with the CME office and associated paperwork                                              
• 2. Advertising: Time spent reaching out to professional organizations by email and collaborating with them to advertise the event.
• 3. Training: Dr. Adam Gordon’s time

Total time donated time: 37.5 hours                  Total value donated: $ 17,650.00

• Why should internists be concerned?
• Addiction care in primary care?
• Opioids and pain
• Success at access to medication treatment using buprenorphine for opioid use disorder
• What about alcohol?
• Some thoughts moving forward

Community Addiction Roundtables

PARCKA with support from the Cambia Foundation (Regence Blue Cross/Blue Shield) provided four Community Addiction Roundtables (CAR). CAR provided a vehicle for discussion and interchange with concerned citizens from a variety of backgrounds about their concerns and how to collaborate to address addiction. PARCKA partnered with the Salt Lake County Health Department, Mayor’s offices, religious institutions and law enforcement.

Read the Community Addiction Roundtables Report