WINDSOR, Conn. – Dr. Brittania Liebla, DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC, an addiction medicine specialist and senior APRN with behavioral healthcare provider Community Health Resources (CHR), was recently recognized by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) with the CT 2024 AANP State Award for Excellence. The AANP State Award for Excellence is presented annually to one nurse practitioner and one advocate from each state, district, or territory in the United States.
Dr. Liebla specializes in critical care and Addiction Medicine. Currently serving as the Addiction Medicine Specialist and Senior APRN for CHR in Connecticut, she leads a multidisciplinary team in providing treatment to patients with substance use disorders in an array of settings and overseeing the outpatient methadone program and outpatient addiction medicine consultation service. She was designated the primary medical provider during the integration and expansion of opioid treatment programs (OTPs) within correctional facilities across Connecticut.
Passionate about the progression of the field of addiction medicine and reducing the stigma attached to addiction, she provides education for medical, nursing, clinician, and correctional staff on topics relevant to substance use disorders and harm reduction. She has been invited to speak at multiple national and state-based conferences and trainings within the substance use disorder treatment community due to her expertise. Relying heavily on a harm reduction philosophy and an integrated care approach, she is able to connect and engage patients who may otherwise be lost to follow-up, as she provides on-site access to harm reduction supplies in the state’s first OTP-embedded syringe exchange program.
Last year, Dr. Liebla coordinated New England’s first protocol to provide field-initiated buprenorphine by EMS personnel to patients revived by naloxone after an opioid overdose, entitled the Somers Fire Department Prehospital Suboxone Program, in collaboration with Somers Fire Department Paramedics and Trinity Health New England.
“Brittany is extremely hard-working and dedicated to serving a difficult patient population,” said Robin Deutsch, MD, Associate Medical Director of CHR’s Primary Care and Addiction Medicine. “She has been a pioneer within addiction medicine and has implemented best practices into CHR programs. We are very fortunate to have her as a teacher and role model for other staff.”
Dr. Liebla is a member of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and is appointed a Doctoral Student Advisor and guest lecturer at the University of Connecticut School of Nursing. Dr. Liebla is a graduate of the University of Connecticut where she received a Doctorate of Nursing Practice, Master of Science in Nursing, and Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
To reach CHR’s Enfield MOUD program, please contact CHR’s Triage Center at 1.877.884.3571.
The full announcement from AANP be read here.
About CHR: CHR is Connecticut’s most comprehensive, nonprofit behavioral healthcare agency, offering a broad range of services for people of all ages whose lives have been touched by mental illness, addiction, trauma, homelessness and more. Accredited by The Joint Commission, CHR was the first nonprofit in CT to meet all of the rigorous federal criteria as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic and has repeatedly been named among the Top Workplaces in the state. Learn more at www.chrhealth.org.
January 11, 2024
For more information, contact mmcguire@chrhealth.org.