Empowered Patient Podcast

Heather Ridenoure, Center of Excellence Segment Leader, and Maeve Ruggieri,  the Director of Product at Contigo Health, shine a light on the challenge of employee substance use disorder and the resources available for care. This chronic disease can be caused by adverse childhood events, genetic predisposition, stress, and environmental factors. Contigo addresses any substance that can be abused through their Centers for Excellence program with virtual care and in-person care options where participation is voluntary and can be accessed 24/7. Heather explains, "As far as how frequently this occurs, the newest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control said one in seven people have a substance use disorder. That's new data, and that's been increasing by 30% since the pandemic, which is pretty significant. So, this is one of the reasons we struck out on a journey to try to address some of these issues."   Maeve elaborates, "As Heather mentioned, substance use disorder being a chronic disease, is something t