The cost of the pre-conference includes two workshop sessions. Turning Uncertainty Into Action: Advocacy for Today’s Policy Climate (1:30p - 4:30p) Hosted by Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) This session offers a practical introduction to effective Congressional advocacy for first-time advocates, experienced organizers, and everyone in between – fighting to address the U.S. overdose crisis. Participants will gain essential tools to build power in their own communities, influence decision-makers, and create lasting policy change at the institutional, state, and federal level. Attendees will explore real-world bipartisan policy wins and gain hands-on experience using tools from the Global Health Advocacy Incubator’s Advocacy Action Guide: Tools for Federal Advocacy in the United States. All participants will leave the session with actionable skills, confidence, and resources to drive impact. Stay Covered: Understanding and Preparing for Medicaid Work Requirements (5p - 6:30p) Hosted by Legal Action Center Beginning January 2027, states will be required to implement new federal Medicaid work requirements for expansion enrollees, changes that can significantly impact access to health coverage and care for people with substance use disorder and criminal legal system involvement. Join Legal Action Center as they lead an interactive session exploring what these new requirements mean, and ways in which to navigate potential risks of coverage disruptions and loss of care. Participants will be given the opportunity to engage in dynamic discussions focused on proactive steps organizations, providers, and advocates can take to reduce barriers, support continuity of care, and help communities stay informed, prepared, and avoid coverage/care disruptions and losses.

Using a patient-centered clinical decision tool, the session will support participants in distinguishing actual patient safety risk from provider-perceived risk, aligning care with patient goals, and setting clear, compassionate boundaries that preserve trust. Participants will leave with practical language, case-based experience, and strategies they can apply in their own institutions and communities.

This capacity-building workshop equips clinicians with skills to respond to rising rates of criminal legal system involvement among pregnant and postpartum people with substance use disorders. Participants will learn to apply an action framework that promotes community-based alternatives and advocates for non-carceral approaches whenever possible.

Join this workshop where we will explore strategies to provide rapid access to medications for opioid use disorder in three neighboring rural communities in Northern California. We will present important components of low barrier systems of care in hospitals and clinics designed by local clinicians and navigators with lived experience.

This workshop transforms clinical tension into relational opportunity. Moving beyond 'person-centered' theory, participants practice using liberation-focused language to deconstruct defensive charting and institutional gatekeeping. Facilitated by a psychologist and social workers, this session provides a practical framework for rupture repair, fostering a restorative culture of care that mitigates provider burnout.

Including people with lived and living experience (PWLLE) of substance use and use disorder in education can reduce stigma and enrich learning—but can also unintentionally cause harm. This interactive workshop offers a practical framework for ethically, thoughtfully, and sustainably engaging PWLLE as educators across clinical, academic, and community settings.

Have you ever had a patient come to you with a toothache and weren’t sure what to do?Join this novel, 90-minute workshop on integrating oral health into addiction care. Learn simple, practical ways to manage dental issues—plus live demonstrations, including fluoride varnish.

This workshop will critically examine the implicit and explicit “price of admission” for PWLE as advisors in addiction research and practice. Drawing real-world examples from research and policy efforts, the session will explore tensions between institutional norms and community realities, including issues of power, stigma, compensation, meritocracy, and role legitimacy.

Explore the hidden world of emerging psychoactive substances sold in everyday retail settings. This interactive workshop equips participants with practical tools to identify local drug trends, conduct community scans, and apply supportive strategies to improve patient care and community response.

This hands-on workshop equips participants with practical tools to access and use opioid settlement funds to build their community’s peer workforce. Through real-world examples and interactive activities, participants will map funding pathways, design proposals, and develop actionable plans to expand training, certification, and workforce opportunities.

Bridge the “pharmacy chasm” in buprenorphine care with a practical, interprofessional workshop on pharmacist-prescriber partnerships, Collaborative Practice Agreements, and warm handoffs for oral and long-acting injectable treatment—expanding capacity, reducing stigma, and improving access for people with opioid use disorder.

Learn how to build trauma-informed substance use education across settings. This interactive workshop highlights curriculum design, integration of lived experience, and ECHO-based models to support collaboration in rural and underserved communities, guiding participants to develop practical, implementable teaching strategies in diverse healthcare settings.

This interactive workshop bridges gaps between trauma informed care guidelines, principles and real-world addiction clinical care, education and research. Participants will learn and practice evidence-based emotional regulation skills tailored for high stress environments. Emphasis will be to identify barriers and implement practical, time-efficient strategies in daily routines without increasing workload.

In this workshop, participants will learn a systematic approach to support patients who use cocaine or methamphetamine in healthcare settings, including assessment, health promotion, use reduction, and toxicity prevention. Attendees will practice client/patient interactions with frontline staff, nurses, and prescribing practitioners, and develop a change plan for their own practice.

Many clinicians support the principle of “meeting patients where they’re at,” but struggle with how to put this into practice. In systems that were largely developed with the assumption that those entering treatment are “ready” to stop drinking alcohol or using drugs, it can be challenging to engage and support patients who don’t identify abstinence as their current goal. This workshop will help clinicians optimize how they discuss substance use, prescribe/adjust medications for substance use disorder, and counsel patients, to mitigate risks and support “any positive change' towards health.

This collaborative workshop addresses the clinical challenges of high-potency kratom products like 7-Hydroxymitragynine. Participants will synthesize their experiences and pharmacological data to co-construct assessment frameworks and treatment protocols. This session empowers frontline providers to develop actionable risk-mitigation and health-promotion strategies, as well as standardized guidelines, for this emerging public health priority.