Patient factors associated with treatment completion in a 12-week inpatient dual diagnosis treatment program.

Objective: To identify whether mental health wellbeing, age, gender or recent substance use pattern affected completion rates of a dual diagnosis inpatient program.

Method: This retrospective cohort study reviewed medical records of patients admitted between October 2018 and December 2021 of Westside Lodge, a dual diagnosis inpatient program. Demographic information, mental health screening tool results (BASIS-24) and self-reported substance use data were accessed from the patients' electronic medical records.

The reflections of health service providers on implementing contingency management for methamphetamine use disorder in Australia.

Introduction: Contingency management (CM) is the most effective treatment for reducing methamphetamine use. We sought to understand why CM has not been taken up to manage methamphetamine use disorder in Australia.

Methods: Six focus groups (4-8 participants per group) were conducted with health workers from agencies in Australia that provided drug-related health care to people who use methamphetamine.

Buprenorphine microdosing regimen using transdermal buprenorphine patches to transition from methadone to buprenorphine.

Introduction: This case series records a cohort of patients treated with transdermal buprenorphine patches as part of a buprenorphine microdose induction protocol to transition from methadone to buprenorphine in a community setting. This has historically been a difficult process to manage in community settings and this case series explored a method to gradually manage this in an outpatient setting.

Method: A retrospective file audit was conducted of the electronic medical records of cohealth Innerspace patients who had undergone buprenorphine microdose induction using transdermal patches.

Perspectives and sentiments on contingency management from people who use methamphetamine.

Introduction: Contingency management (CM) is currently the most efficacious treatment for methamphetamine use, yet it is rarely available in routine care. We examined the viewpoints of people who use methamphetamine on CM as a potential treatment for methamphetamine use disorder.

Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews with 30 Australians aged 18 years or older who had used methamphetamine at least weekly in the past 6 months.

A multi-site, nurse-coordinated hepatitis C model of care in primary care and community services in Melbourne, Australia.

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment through primary care and community-based services will be a critical component of HCV elimination. We evaluated a nurse-coordinated programme providing care across eight sites and analysed progression through the HCV care cascade.

Methods: People-accessing services from six primary care clinics, a homeless crisis accommodation provider and a mental health service were directly referred to nurses or engaged by nurses during regular clinic visits.

The impact of universal access to direct-acting antiviral therapy on the hepatitis C cascade of care among individuals attending primary and community health services.

Background: Hepatitis C elimination will require widespread access to treatment and responses at the health-service level to increase testing among populations at risk. We explored changes in hepatitis C testing and the cascade of care before and after the introduction of direct-acting antiviral treatments in Victoria, Australia.

Methods: De-identified clinical data were retrospectively extracted from eighteen primary care clinics providing services targeted towards people who inject drugs.

Point-of-care hepatitis C testing from needle and syringe programs: An Australian feasibility study.

Background: Achieving hepatitis C elimination requires novel approaches to engage people at highest risk of infection into care pathways. Point-of-care-tests may help to overcome some of the barriers preventing people who inject drugs (PWID) accessing testing and progressing to treatment for hepatitis C virus (HCV). We assessed the feasibility and acceptability of HCV point-of-care testing at needle and syringe exchange programs (NSPs) co-located in three community health clinics in Melbourne, Australia.