Asana Recovery has successfully enrolled and was approved to be a California COVID-19 Vaccination Site. It will be able to administer, manage and report COVID-19 vaccinations given to its staff and patients who meet the criteria and guidelines set by the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) and by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) for the state.
As a California COVID-19 Vaccination Program approved site, Asana Recovery has successfully met the program’s requirements which includes, the ability to store the vaccine, staff training, as well as reporting the administration of the vaccine. The latter requires enrollment and approval
to access the state’s computerized immunization information system for California residents, which Asana Recovery has also successfully completed.
Asana Recovery’s licensed medical staff (LVN, RN) will administer the vaccine to its patients who meet the guidelines and criteria during the phased distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. The organization will follow the established guidelines and make the changes or adjust as instructed by the CDC and CDPH.
Recent studies have shown evidence that suggest a link between substance use disorders (SUD) and COVID-19 susceptibility. According to a study published in Molecular Psychiatry in September, 2020, analysis of hospital data records have shown that people with SUDs are at higher risk of contracting and suffering worse consequences from COVID-19. The study was based on data from more than 73 million patients at 360 U.S. hospitals. Of those patients, over 10 percent (7.5 million) had an SUD and 12,030 had COVID-19. The data pointed to the overrepresentation of people with SUDs among those with COVID-19, making up 15.6 percent of the COVID-19 group versus just 10.3 percent of the total sample. Risk of COVID-19 was highest in people diagnosed with SUD within the past year. Those diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD) were 10.2 times more likely than those without a recent SUD diagnosis to have COVID-19, followed by recent diagnosis of tobacco use disorder (8.2 times 00.more likely), alcohol use disorder (7.8 times), cocaine use disorder (6.5 times), and cannabis use disorder (5.3 times).
“With the pandemic’s continued spread, and with new strands emerging, we feel it is our duty and responsibility to help protect our clients and the general populations, as a percentage of our clients are transient,” says Adam Shandrow, COO of Asana Recovery. “We feel that it is imperative
that residential treatment centers take responsibility to ensure that clients are vaccinated and help stop the spread of this horrible disease.”
While vaccinations remain limited and administered in phases, Asana Recovery will respect and ensure the equitable distribution of the vaccine within the organization. As required, it will record and report administration of the vaccines to CAIR2 (California Immunization Registry).
