Health Experts Hold Seminar to Boost Understanding of Opioid Epidemic

Jodi Manz, M.S.W, Virginia Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Resources, giving the closing remarks at the Covering the Opioid Epidemic in Virginia seminar. Photo by Adam Hamza.

VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY - Virginia health experts took part in a seminar to discuss the opioid epidemic afflicting Virginia and the nation Thursday. The purpose of the event was to educate the public about the scope of the opioid epidemic and what’s being done to solve it.

The seminar contained a vast amount of information and statistics to explain the extent of this issue. It was broken down into two sections. The first was an overview of the crisis including on how we got to this point, how Virginia’s prescription monitoring program works, Virginia’s core competencies regarding opioid prescribing and how the Medical College of Virginia is training future prescribers. The second section outlined the programs and services that help people overcome opioid addiction. This outlined the efforts of the Addiction and Recovery Treatment Services (ARTS) program and REVIVE! which is the opioid overdose and Naloxone education program for Virginia.

Following each section, speakers took questions from the audience. You can hear some of the questions attendees had in the video below.

After the first section Dr. Ralph Orr, Virginia’s Prescription Monitoring Program director, said the language used by journalists impacts how the public understands this crisis. He worries that terms like “doctor shopping” distracts people from “making informed decisions for treatment dispense.”

“We use terms like doctor shopping we [or] use other terms where we talk about specific drugs which really confuses the issue,” Dr. Orr said. “What we really need is more care coordination, [patients] need more interaction and opportunity for providing information at the front of decision making.”

This event was organized by the Virginia Department of Health Professionals and sponsored by VCU, the Virginia Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and by the Robertson School of Media & Culture.

A video archive of the seminar will be available within the next few weeks. Click here for copies of the presentations and information about the speakers.