UT Health San Antonio to Expand Access to Substance Use Disorder Support App

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is expanding the availability of the WEconnect Recovery app to people in Texas suffering from substance use disorders.

The app will be available to all Texans with substance use disorders, including the uninsured, through UT Health's Be Well Texas Clinic. The clinic provides various addiction recovery services, such as counseling and medication-assisted treatment, via telehealth, and offers therapeutic services under the supervision of physicians who specialize in addiction psychiatry.

Developed by WEconnect Health Management, the app provides users with behavioral health and emotional support. The app offers access to one-on-one peer support and community meetings for specific groups, including women and LGBTQIA2+. The app also offers specialized meetings for the family and loved ones of substance use disorder patients.

In addition, the app aims to help people in recovery develop self-care habits by providing routine reminders and recovery insights.

"Substance misuse doesn't care where you work, what you do, or what insurance you have," said Daniela Luzi Tudor, co-founder, and CEO of WEconnect Health Management, in the news release. "We need to make the best solutions and services available to people in a way that works for them."

WEconnect Health Management and Be Well Texas Clinic began their partnership in November 2021.  

"The response to the mobile WEconnect Health service has been overwhelmingly positive and we are pleased to extend it to even more people," said Jennifer Potter, PhD, vice president for research and professor of psychiatry at UT Health San Antonio, in the press release. "This is a great example of how Be Well Texas is leveraging new technology to address one of the most significant issues today."

Substance misuse worsened significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than one in ten adults saying that they started or increased the use of alcohol or drugs to cope with the public health crisis.

Drug overdose deaths also spiked over the past two years, rising from about 74,000 reported deaths in March 2020 to more than 102,000 in November 2021, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

Research further shows that care disruptions during the pandemic blocked patient access to in-person opioid treatment program services. To ensure continued access to care, government agencies like Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA) lifted certain restrictions, including allowing buprenorphine prescribers to initiate medication treatment through telehealth without requiring an in-person visit first.

Though this enabled providers to use telehealth to deliver substance use disorder treatment, the regulatory landscape still needs to catch up to virtual addiction recovery treatment demand. A study published last November shows that though all states and Washington, D.C., have adopted at least one telehealth policy, only 17 have adopted policies that improve access to substance use disorder treatment for new patients.