Feasibility and early experience of a novel multidisciplinary alcohol-associated liver disease clinic

The Impact of Social Workers in Cirrhosis Care: a Systematic Review

“…Additionally, by only including studies that involved the use of social worker-led interventions, we may have missed other potential roles social workers can play in improving patient outcomes. For example, Mellinger et al reported the successful implementation of an intervention led by a multidisciplinary team for patients with alcohol-related liver disease [ 40 ••]. While this study was not eligible for inclusion in this review, the multidisciplinary team included a social worker who was involved with making a pre-treatment clinic phone call to prospective participants largely to alleviate barriers of attendance to the clinic program.…”

Management of alcohol use disorder in patients with cirrhosis in the setting of liver transplantation

“…Frequently, patients with ALD who are looking for care are seen in multiple specialized clinics with poor integration of care, giving piecemeal information to the patient and not broadly seeing the patient’s agenda 119 . Patients commonly receive mixed messages from providers about their own tasks, biases and training backgrounds 120 . In this sense, innovation is needed to fill this gap with the development of initiatives such as the multidisciplinary clinical models staffed by cross-trained clinicians.…”

Bridging the Gap: Dual Fellowship Training in Addiction Medicine and Digestive Diseases

“…Incorporation of addiction specialists and dedicated addiction treatment units within liver transplantation programs are associated with decreased rates of alcohol use among patients with ALD before and after transplantation [ 42 ]. Multidisciplinary clinics providing integrated care for patients with ALD by embedding hepatology, psychiatry, psychology, and social work expertise are associated with increased uptake of medications for alcohol use disorder and decreases in acute inpatient care [ 6 ]. Models integrating primary care, mental health care, addiction treatment, and management of HCV have demonstrated successful treatment of HCV, reductions in unhealthy alcohol use, and ongoing engagement with opioid agonist treatment in people with SUD [ 43 – 45 ].…”

“…Although patients with SUD often seek care for other medical conditions, a small minority of individuals with SUD receive addiction treatment [ 4 , 5 ]. Efforts to integrate addiction treatment into gastroenterology and hepatology care settings can improve access for patients with co-occurring SUD; such models of care have been recently described for patients with liver disease [ 6 ]. There is rising interest in developing addiction treatment skills among clinicians who care for patients with liver disease in order to integrate care [ 7 ].…”