27 Oct Family Service League and Aegis Sciences Corporation collaborate to assist clients during the pandemic
Nashville, Tennessee (October 27, 2020) – The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant challenges to both healthcare systems and public health. Social distancing, disruption of healthcare services, and unemployment are affecting at-risk populations at a high rate exacerbating behavioral health problems and increasing adverse health outcomes. Although COVID-19 pandemic measures impact the entire population, they disproportionally affect vulnerable groups, including those who already face discrimination and stigma as persons with substance use disorders (SUD), opioid use disorders (OUD), or other mental health conditions. This only makes it more challenging to access recovery programs, medication treatment, counseling and other supportive services.
While it is critical to deal with the immediate and short term demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critically important to ensure that everyone has access to needed services now and in the future. Drug monitoring is a critical tool to gauge measure medication compliance and potential substance misuse. The ability to perform safe and reliable alternatives to in-person testing became critical as telemedicine appointments became the norm. Family Service League (FSL) and Aegis Sciences understood the need to maintain continuity of care and quickly collaborated to provide remote drug testing and medication monitoring through the use of oral fluid collection observed via telehealth and with the appropriate safeguards in place.
FSL is a non-profit, community-based human services agency that provides education programs, senior services, family support counseling, mental health, integrated healthcare, substance abuse programs, early education and youth programming(add), and housing and homeless services for Long Islanders.
Aegis Sciences provides innovative science-driven drug monitoring services providing actionable insights to help clinicians make better decisions, improve patient care, and prevent the human tragedy caused by the misuse, abuse, and diversion of prescribed and illicit drugs.
“We are grateful for our partnership with FSL and the ability to maintain essential healthcare services during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The collaboration to provide telemedicine and remote oral fluid collections for medication and drug monitoring at a distance allows the staff at FSL to determine appropriate use and adherence of prescribed medications and abstinence from illicit and non-prescribed substances,” said Mike Ziegler, Aegis’s Chief Sales Officer.
“This partnership ensures appropriate continuity of care for FSL’s clients and flexibility to adapt to the new and evolving healthcare environment. This is our philosophy of where there is a will there is a way. We will innovate and meet the demands and needs of our clients,” said Jeffrey Steigman, Psy.D., Chief Administration and Innovation Officer for Family Service League.