The Impact of Turning the Tide

Turning the Tide focuses on improving hospital-based screening for substance use for patients admitted for delivery to participating hospitals, connecting patients who screen positive to proper care, and coordination of a postpartum visit for follow-up. The program also promotes screening for anxiety, depression, and social determinants of health (SDoH) needs. Together, we are Turning the Tide on behavioral health-related morbidity and mortality among birthing patients in Colorado.

Screening patients for substance use is critical to identifying those who need supportive care. Our goal is for participating hospitals to screen 90% of all patients admitted for delivery for substance use.

It is not enough to simply identify harmful substance use – patients need to be connected to effective treatment and receive comprehensive, compassionate care. The full care protocol for Turning the Tide is 1) consultation with the social work team, 2) receipt of or referral to recovery treatment services, and 3) scheduling of a postpartum follow-up visit prior to discharge from the hospital.

Our goal is for 80% of all patients who screen positive for substance use to receive adequate care via participating hospitals’ completion of these three key steps.