Illinois

The Illinois Department of Human Services has established the State Opioid Response Hospital Screening and Warm Handoff Project to provide funding to support the creation of hospital-based programs that provide robust evidence-based screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) and warm handoff services to persons with opioid use disorder (OUD) and other substance use disorders.
Hospitals that receive grant funding are responsible for implementing a robust SBIRT program to identify hospital patients with OUD and facilitate their engagement in treatment through an intensive discharge planning process. The program also calls for the use of certified peer-recovery specialists; the induction of medication-assisted treatment, when appropriate; and on-going case management and recovery support among other protocols in each hospital’s warm handoff program.
$6,000,000 of opioid settlement funds were allocated to warm handoff programs and recovery services