Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28WILLIAM JAMES COLLEGE 3 KENNEY ADDS STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE TO CONFRONTING OPIOID CRISIS Meagan M. Kenney, a second-year William James student, working on her MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a Concentration in Forensic and Correctional Counseling, hopes to move on to the Clinical PsyD program, but she’s not waiting until then to make a difference. In addition to her full-time studies and a job at the Cambridge Hospital’s Behavioral Health Department, she created a survey to get a sense of William James students’ interest in the opioid crisis. “The response was remarkable,” she says. “We’ formed a group that is hoping to get involved in the local com- munity and address the crisis from students’ perspective.” She describes the group as diverse, including people in recovery, people doing counseling, people who’ve had friends and relatives die of substance abuse overdoses. “We’re taking an active stance,” she says, “beginning with raising awareness and education about the crisis.” I view this as a public health crisis ‘all hands on deck’ situation. We have to bring prevention, education and treatment to a new level.” —Charles Baker, Governor of Massachusetts experts and participants, all concerned about the unprecedented rates of fatal opioid overdoses. According to Herzog, “The conference got people thinking, people from a wide variety of fields eager to come together, listen to each other and move the process forward. As a result, nearly 90 individuals have formed three ongoing working groups commit- ted to influencing real change and saving lives. We had psychiatrists, nurses, attorneys, people from the pharmaceutical industry, from law enforcement, from faith-based communities as well as parents whose kids had lost their lives—all wanting to work together.” Sudders acknowledged the Governor’s Opioid Working Group and recent legislation limiting first-time opioid prescriptions to seven days. “It will take all of us to stem this crisis,” she said. Hart noted that the vast majority of deaths occur because people take opioids in combination with other drugs. He supports legalizing drugs and emphasizing the environmental influence of addiction, meaning that if we can change one’s environment, use decreases. Kolodny said that the epidemic has exploded, in part, because of the over-prescribing by physicians aided by pharmaceutical campaigns that encour- aged them to increase opioid prescriptions for their patients with pain. His suggestion was that a three- pronged approach is needed to treat this epidemic: 1) prevent/contain new cases; 2) treat patients; and 3) reduce the supply from pill mills and the black market. Governor Baker emphasized how isolated parents of opioid abusers feel with nowhere to go because of the stigma and shame. He urged more conversation as a way to promote steps to counter the crisis. “I view this as a public health crisis ‘all hands on deck’ situation,” said Baker. “We have to bring prevention, education and treatment to a new level.”