Pictured: Taylor Nichols.
Meet Taylor Nichols, the CA Bridge Connect Lead Prioritizing Physicians
When the CA Bridge Connect helpline launched in April, the idea was simple: give Californians struggling with substance use a direct connection to low-barrier care. Taylor Nichols, MD, one of CA Bridge Connect’s newest Leads, wanted to focus on a second priority: reaching providers.
While people seeking support and their loved ones can contact the CA Bridge Connect helpline via call or text for substance use support navigation, providers can also work with Navigators on the helpline to connect their patients to care. And when providers submit a referral, they can opt in to receive updates on their patient’s journey.
“Of course we want to get the helpline to people who need immediate support,” Nichols said, “but I really want to get CA Bridge Connect in the hands of people providing care. I know there are providers who want to help a patient, but don’t know exactly how to help them or what resources are available. I guarantee it would feel much better to offer a resource rather than not – whether it’s calling the CA Bridge Connect number with a patient or giving the number to them to call when they’re ready.”
“If you don’t know where to send patients for care,” he added, “CA Bridge Connect can find a pathway.”
As an emergency medicine physician, Chief Executive Officer of Transitions Addiction Medicine Group, and medical director of Transitions Clinic in Sacramento, Nichols knows how essential timely, effective tools are to any physician’s daily work. An important piece of his CA Bridge Connect Lead role is working closely with clinicians in California to ensure the helpline is one of those tools. Since April, he’s been promoting it at speaking engagements to reach as many providers as possible, especially emergency physicians.
Early in his career, Nichols thought he wanted to be a family medicine doctor. Then, when he found emergency medicine, he was struck by the difference he felt he could make on a systems level. The emergency department, he noticed, was the safety net of medicine – and where many people in his community would go for substance use crises when they didn’t know where else to turn. Now, he wants to ensure that emergency clinicians see CA Bridge Connect as the safety net they need.
“If there’s one thing I can convey to physicians about CA Bridge Connect, it’s that we have tools to empower you,” Nichols said. “If providers don’t use the tools at their disposal, it can be really easy to get burned out.”
“Emergency physicians in particular don’t always get to see the outcome of their support for patients after discharge, but CA Bridge Connect helps close the loop,” he added. “It feels really good to be able to follow someone’s journey and see their life change. In my own work as an emergency physician, after seeing the power of medications for addiction treatment, I started to hit a groove where I felt I could actually improve the addiction care pathway in the state and even the country.”
Since CA Bridge Connect’s launch, nearly 1,000 people have contacted the helpline for connection to addiction treatment, including hundreds of referrals from providers aiming to connect their patients to medications for addiction treatment and other resources.
“CA Bridge Connect is a novel concept that actually works,” Nichols said. “When providers learn that their patients received a next-day appointment after calling the helpline, that will be everything.”
Learn More
Whether you’re looking to help yourself or someone else, call, text, or make a referral from anywhere in California to get connected to care.
→ Call: 1-800-944-1807
→ Text: 1-833-308-0461
→ Refer yourself or someone to care