Integrated Substance Use Disorder Training Program

Overview

Twenty-three million Americans have a substance use disorder (SUD), yet only 10% receive treatment annually. Among hospitalized patients, 22% have an active drug or alcohol use disorder. Despite the growing prevalence of SUDs, few clinical providers have the opportunity to gain specialty training in addiction medicine.

The Massachusetts General Hospital Integrated Substance Use Disorder Training Program will prepare nurse practitioners, psychologists and social workers for clinical and academic careers in addiction medicine with a particular focus on developing and enhancing evidence-based addiction prevention and treatment services for all patients, including those vulnerable to health disparities because of poverty, race, culture, age, gender, disability or stigma.

Through a combination of inpatient and outpatient care spanning diverse settings, trainees will receive training in the knowledge and skills to become expert clinicians and leaders in the field of addiction medicine. Clinical rotations include:

• Outpatient addiction treatment provided as a multidisciplinary behavioral health team integrated into primary care at Mass General community health centers
• Low threshold, urgent and transitional addiction treatment in the Mass General outpatient Bridge Clinic
• Dual-diagnosis treatment in Mass General’s specialty outpatient clinics for both adults and youth
• Inpatient consultation on the Addiction Consult Team at serving the entire Mass General Hospital

Electives and longitudinal experiences will be further tailored to each trainee’s interests and guided by the interdisciplinary program faculty. The diverse program faculty includes the following:

• Physicians from Internal Medicine, Psychiatry and Family Medicine
• Psychologists
• Nurse Practitioners
• Recovery Coaches
• Clinical Social Workers

The primary goal of the one-year, full-time training program is to prepare nurse practitioners, social workers and psychologists for clinical and academic careers in addiction medicine. Trainees will benefit from working within the Program in Substance Use & Addiction Services (PSAS), a hospital-/community-wide collaboration to deliver state-of-the-art addiction medicine care for those suffering with substance use issues. This program also benefits from close collaboration with Mass General’s addiction medicine and psychiatry fellowships for physicians and trainees will work together in many shared settings.

Fellows receive benefits through Mass General. More information on benefits can be found on the Mass General website.

Curriculum

Training Experience

Core training includes an overview of the field of addiction medicine with an emphasis on training addiction medicine nurse practitioners, psychologists and social workers who will educate other clinicians and trainees in the community; rigorously assess and incorporate scientific evidence into their practice and deliver compassionate care to a diverse population of patients, particularly those who are most marginalized. Training will comprise didactic and clinical experiences across the spectrum of addiction care, including the following:

• Comprehensive behavioral treatment of the full spectrum of substance use disorders using evidence-based models
• Psychosocial interventions to address social determinants of health in substance using populations
• Harm reduction
• Motivational interviewing
• Focus on providing care for vulnerable populations
• Neurobiology of addiction
• Pharmacotherapy for substance use disorders
• Novel and integrated care models for substance use disorder treatment

Core Clinical Sites

• Massachusetts General Hospital
• Mass General Community Health Centers

Clinical Experience Area

• Outpatient Addiction Treatment within a Community Health Center: 12-month longitudinal rotation within an integrated care setting at a Mass General primary care health center

• Inpatient Consultation Service at Mass General: Rotation on the Mass General inpatient Addiction Consultation service. The multidisciplinary Addiction Consult Team (ACT) offers expert consultation and support for patients with moderate to severe substance use disorders (SUDs) across Mass General’s inpatient units

• Outpatient Co-occurring Disorders Rotation: Outpatient rotation providing treatment for co-occurring disorders at the Mass General Addiction Recovery Management Services (ARMS) and West End Clinic

• Mass General Bridge Clinic: Rotation in a low barrier, transitional outpatient addiction clinic for vulnerable patients who are unable to benefit from more traditional outpatient SUD care. Patients served include discharged inpatients with unstable outpatient options, patients leaving the emergency department who are not yet connected to outpatient care, and primary care patients who are not stable enough to benefit from structured care. The Bridge Clinic provides patients with continued necessary treatment for their SUDs delivered in a patient centered, patient determined approach until they stabilize enough that they can access appropriate community-based treatment.

• Mass General HOPE Clinic: Rotation in a perinatal clinic for families impacted by substance use disorder. The HOPE Clinic is interdisciplinary, offering obstetrics, pediatric, family medicine, addiction and psychiatric care for the birthing person, partner and child(ren) from pregnancy through the first two years of the child’s life.

Elective Rotation

Trainees will have 24 weeks of an elective rotation. Electives will offer fellows an opportunity to deepen their experience in one of the areas of required training, including Inpatient care, Low Threshold Care, Integrated Primary Care, care for co-occurring disorders, and care for pregnant and post-partum families. Trainees may also create custom electives with the help of the program director focused on their unique interests.

Trainees learn to work in a team-based model with other professionals, including counselors, social workers, nurses, psychologists, recovery coaches and physicians from a variety of specialties. Teams will be based in outpatient treatment agencies, outpatient primary care settings and within community-based teams providing essential services to those suffering with substance use disorder.

Academic Preparation

Trainees will have weekly didactic sessions delivered by experts in a broad range of topics related to providing care for those with substance use disorder. Trainees will have the opportunity to participate with addiction medicine fellows and addiction psychiatry fellows in applicable didactic opportunities. In addition, fellows will have the opportunity to become involved in ongoing research projects as one of their elective rotations as time and interest allow.

Mentorship and Career Development

Mentorship and career development is an important aspect of our program. Within the first three months of the program, each fellow has the opportunity to meet with our Program Director and faculty to discuss career goals. The Program Director and faculty concretely explore fellows’ career aspirations including geography and type of position and provide guidance on the job search process, including where to search for posted job opportunities and what networking opportunities exist at local and national meetings. The program director and faculty directly connect fellows to relevant colleagues based on fellows’ interests and utilize their own professional networks to make introductions for fellows to speak with leaders in the field in geographic regions of interest to begin exploring job opportunities. In addition, our faculty represent a variety of diverse care settings and are eager to support and mentor fellows depending on their interests. After the initial meeting, career planning sessions continue monthly for the remainder of the training year.

Anti-racism Plan

As a key training program in the Mass General Program in Substance Use & Addiction Services (PSAS), the ISTP fellows will be able to be involved in the ongoing anti-racism efforts of the initiative. The leadership is currently working to implement concrete action steps as part of its anti-racism plan and welcomes input and involvement from staff across the program. This work is integrated with the Mass General Brigham United Against Racism initiative, a sweeping system-wide approach outlining broad social justice and equity goals and strategies. The Integrated Substance Use Disorder Fellowship is committed to recruiting diverse classes of fellows and works toward that goal in close collaboration with the Mass General Center for Diversity and Inclusion.

Our Team

Meet our faculty

Current Fellows

Integrated Substance Use Disorder Training Program Fellows 2024-2025

Julie Nason, PsyD, LMHC

Julie Nason, PsyD, LMHC is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a Designated Forensic Psychology Candidate. Dr. Nason is the Forensic Research Associate for the Psychiatry, Law and Society Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an adjunct instructor of Forensic Risk Assessment at Antioch University in Keene, New Hampshire. Before and during attending graduate school, Dr. Nason was a Social Service Advocate for the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services, the office of the Public Defender.

Dr. Nason has worked for over 27 years in various capacities in the mental health field, including as a residential counselor in a group home, licensed mental health therapist, social worker, Program of Assertive Community Treatment Director, and the Director of Outpatient Services at Vinfen.

Dr. Nason is a graduate of William James College with a concentration in Forensic Psychology. Additionally, Dr. Nason earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Tampa and a Master of Arts in Counseling Education from the University of South Florida. Her career focus is assessment, treatment, research, and access to systems of support for marginalized individuals with serious mental illness and/or substance use disorders who are involved with the criminal justice system.

Dina Sattenspiel, MSN, PMHNP-BC, CCRN-K

Dina Sattenspiel obtained her Master of Science in Nursing degree at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing to become a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. She long yearned to help populations with mental health needs and substance use disorders during her 25 years as an AACN-certified critical care nurse in the MICU, as she frequently witnessed unfortunate patient outcomes from untreated disorders and/or diagnoses and the stigma associated with both.

In being a strong patient advocate, Dina has performed various self-starting projects during her ICU career, including presenting topics such as “Posttraumatic Stress Post-ICU” and “Preventing ICU Delirium Among the Adult Population” during Critical Care Symposiums to improve healthcare provider awareness and patient outcomes. In addition, Dina formulated and implemented an ICU sedation protocol along with nursing scientists to prevent the overuse of sedating medications such as Fentanyl, which could potentially place someone at risk of developing a SUD. To improve nursing practice within the MICU, Dina created an evidenced-based practice resource guide for newly hired ICU nurses titled “MICU Survival Guide,” which was downloaded onto flash drives by hospital administration and distributed during each ICU nursing hospital orientation. In continuing her patient advocacy, Dina published a systematic review with NP colleagues at Penn titled “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Symptom Management in Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia” in the American Journal of Nursing in 2022.

Dina has also been actively involved in community outreach projects, helping underserved and vulnerable populations. While in graduate school, Dina was chosen to participate in a new trial called Wellness Checks at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia. There, she volunteered by performing Wellness Checks for 3 to 4 veterans weekly, offering emotional support via phone for almost two years.

During undergraduate and graduate school, Dina was a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Society from 2014-2021 and received several scholarship awards from Penn. To obtain more hands-on clinician experience as an NP and to care for the Veteran population, Dina completed a post-graduate Nurse Practitioner Residency Program-Mental Health at the VA Boston Healthcare System in July 2022. Afterward, Dina was chosen to be a vital team member for the creation of the Behavior Response Team at Boston Medical Center.

Dina’s current academic goal is to publish her narrative review titled “A Narrative Review to Improve Veteran Outcomes: Identification of Veteran Opioid Overdose Risk Factors and Barriers and Facilitators to MOUD” soon.

Sophie Staton, LICSW

Sophie Staton, LICSW (they/she) is a clinical social worker who completed their undergraduate education at Skidmore College and received their Master of Social Work from Columbia University School of Social Work. They have clinical experience in outpatient, intensive outpatient, and community settings throughout Boston, New York City, and Upstate New York. She also has experience conducting research in the areas of psychiatry, cardiology, and oncology. They are passionate about behavioral health, improving access to care, and social justice work. Sophie plans to continue pursuing a career providing low-threshold care to people with substance use disorders in a community outpatient setting and using a harm reduction model.

Learn more about our past fellows

How to Apply

Eligibility

Eligible candidates will be from one of the below disciplines and meet the following criteria:

• Nurse Practitioners: Master of Science in Nursing (MSN). Current licensure as a Nurse Practitioner or Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Mass Controlled Substances Licensing
• Psychologists: PhD, PsyD or EDD in Psychology
• Social workers: Master of Social Work (MSW) degree required. Massachusetts license (LICSW or LCSW)

All applicants should have an interest in providing substance use disorder care in under-served, community-based settings.

Timeline & Process

Please contact Jessica Carbonneau, Program Manager, jcarbonneau@mgh.harvard.edu, with any questions.