Dozens of opioid summit attendees join work to address top five community needs

Roughly 400 people attended the Oct. 15 Washtenaw County Opioid Summit organized by the Washtenaw Health Initiative Opioid Project. Attendees included U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell and a half-dozen Washtenaw County Commissioners; leaders of some of the county’s most effective treatment organizations; physicians, nurses, practitioners; community members with lived experience; members of the media; and more.

Jorge Avellan, a news reporter with WEMU, developed a radio segment on the summit, interviewing a number of organizers and attendees. Patrick Campion (WEMU) and Mary Morgan (CivCity) featured it on “Civic Matters,” their weekly WEMU broadcast. And McKenzie Sanderson (MLive) wrote about it in “Opioid Summit aims to tackle worsening crisis.”

The professional development session included presentations on:

• Opioid Exposure in Washtenaw County Residents by Adreanne Waller, an epidemiologist with the Washtenaw County Health Department; ​
• Describing Recovery – Facts and Myths by Carl Christensen, an addiction medicine specialist at St. Joseph Mercy Health System;
• Communicating with Addicted Patients by Anna Byberg, director of the Spera Recovery Center at Dawn Farms;
• Matching Level of Care to Severity in Treating Opiate Use Disorder by Ed Jouney of University of Michigan Addiction Treatment Services;
• Unpacking Legislation that Affects Prescribers, Treatment Providers and their Patients by Kim Gaedeke, deputy director of LARA and Jared Welehodsky of the Office of Recovery-Orientated Systems of Care at MDHHS;
• Overdose Prevention and Naloxone Training by Gina Dahlem of the University of Michigan School of Nursing;
• Current State Findings by Marci Scalera, clinical and SUD services director of the Community Mental Health Partnership of Southeast Michigan and Jimena Loveluck, deputy health officer of the Washtenaw County Health Department; and
• The Pill Fix, a presentation by Eastern Michigan University’s Prevention Theatre Collective.

​The community engagement session featured presentations on:  

• Opioid Exposure in Washtenaw County Residents by Adreanne Waller, an epidemiologist with the Washtenaw County Health Department; ​
• Current State Findings by Marci Scalera, clinical and SUD services director of the Community Mental Health Partnership of Southeast Michigan and Jimena Loveluck, deputy health officer of the Washtenaw County Health Department;
• The Prescription Problem by Monica Walker, clinical implementation and engagement manager for Michigan OPEN;
• A Story of Hope by Ashton Marr, program manager of the Washtenaw Recovery Advocacy Project (WRAP) and a recovering person; and
• Overdose Prevention and Naloxone Training by Lemont Gore, street outreach coordinator for UNIFIED – HIV Health and Beyond.

More than four-dozen Nalaxone treatment kits were handed out to attendees who requested them–along with instruction in how to use them–and dozens of attendees signed up for subcommittees that will work to address the top five issues driving opioid misuse in our community.