Equity-Oriented Opiate Treatment Agreements
Some health clinics and providers ask clients requiring prescriptions for opioids or other controlled drugs to sign an agreement setting parameters related to ongoing use of these medications.
In our research, we’ve found that many of the standard agreements convey judgement and stigma, even when it’s unintended. In response, we offer an example of how to take a more equity-oriented approach to such agreements, should you choose to use them. When the EQUIP Primary Care study sites used the revised forms, both staff and clients reported increased comfort with the revised version.
We provide two tools below:
The first tool shows the “before and after” of the opioid treatment agreement. We tracked the specific edits to show how and why specific changes were made.
The second tool is a clean, revised version of the agreement in Microsoft Word format, which you can download, tailor to meet your own needs, and use in your practice/organization.
To print this tool as a booklet*:
- To print as a booklet, you would need 11″ x 17″ paper that will then be folded into a booklet.
- Make sure to change the paper size settings to 11″ x 17″ paper.
- Select “Booklet” under Page Sizing & Handling section.
- Select “Portrait” orientation.
*Instructions for printing using Adobe PDF Reader.
Revising Opiate or Controlled Drug Agreements
