Perspectives on collaboration between drug courts and MOUD providers: Impact of interagency implementation strategies

Effective working relationships between drug courts and community providers are critical to improving access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), but collaboration is often inadequate. We adapted and piloted a package of implementation strategies (Clinical Organizations and Legal Agency Alliance Building; COLAAB) designed to enhance collaboration between recovery courts and MOUD agencies. COLAAB activities included structured interagency meetings, agency tours, academic liaison, and development of local resource guides.

After the implementation of COLAAB in three courts, we conducted semi-structured interviews (n = 24) with drug court and MOUD staff to assess the impact of COLAAB on collaboration, communication, and referrals. Data were analyzed using a modified iterative categorization approach.

Drug court and MOUD agency staff perceived COLAAB as facilitating interagency relationships and referrals to MOUD, increasing MOUD agencies' understanding of drug courts, improving communication quality, strengthening understanding and trust in MOUD providers and drug courts, and reducing time to referrals to MOUD. COLAAB also increased the MOUD agency staff's awareness of other community providers and helped build their potential referral networks. COLAAB may have also enhanced drug court staff's willingness to speak with clients about MOUD and MOUD provider staff's willingness to discuss clients' criminal legal involvement.

Our pilot study provides preliminary evidence that court-MOUD agency collaborations can be enhanced through active learning about one another's practices and services, participation in regularly scheduled meetings or activities, and the identification and use of resources that support efficient interagency referral processes.