The Tuolumne County Public Health Department hosted a full day Opioid Safety Conference on August 16, 2018 at Black Oak Casino. The conference provided an opportunity to inform the community on the current nature and impact of the opioid problems in the County, and what can be done to prevent, treat, and rehabilitate victims of the epidemic. The agenda for the conference can be found here, and the six speaker presentations are below. (Please note: videos may take a while to load).
Dr. Amber Robinson also serves as the Science Coordinator for two of CDC’s opioid prevention efforts, the Prevention for States Program and the Data-Driven Prevention Initiative. In this role, she is responsible for prioritizing scientific inquiry and building the evidence base for strategies related to these programs. She holds her MPH from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and her PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, both in global health. Dr. Robinson’s background is in epidemiology, with a focus on understanding and preventing violence and injuries. Her interests include etiologic research, implementation science, and mixed-methods investigations.
Dr. Mark Horton will present and discuss the strategies, achievements and lessons learned by some peer counties among the 23 local California Opioid Safety Coalitions consisting of dedicated stakeholders—parents, physicians, pharmacists, and professionals in public health, mental health, and law enforcement.
Dr. Matthew Willis will describe the development, operation, achievements and constraints in the RxSafeMarin Opioid Safety Coalition Program, including some comments on the use of CA DoJ’s CURES Program and the CA DPH Opioid Dashboard to monitor, evaluate and improve the safety of prescribing practices for opioids.
Dr. Richard Harruff will present and discuss a novel near real-time surveillance system for investigating opioid-related fatalities and near fatalities. In small rural counties where it can take weeks to months before toxicological data are available in order to confirm a suspected opioid-related death, such a system can be used to encourage investigations to improve timely measures for prevention and Emergency Medical Treatment of disorders associated with use of opioids obtained by prescription and/or illegal means. A system of this kind can also support increasing access to the timely administration of Naloxone by Law Enforcement, ED staff, EMS First Responders, and others as recommended by the Surgeon General.
Dr. Vincent Felitti will present and discuss successful approaches to preventing and measuring ACEs, and reducing the risk of subsequent unhealthy behaviors and adverse health consequences...a topic which cuts across Tuolumne County's three Community Health Improvement Plan priorities (increasing access to essential services, preventing and treating substance abuse, and ensuring safe and healthy childhood and adolescence).
Dr. Steve Wirtz will describe the rationale for developing the Opioid Dashboard, and illustrate some ways in which the Dashboard can be used by both government and non-government stakeholders for monitoring, evaluating and encouraging improvements in interventions aimed at preventing and treating opioid problems. He will also describe any plans for future developments in the Dashboard.
