Experts To Address New Report on Continuing Impact of Opioid Crisis in Rural Communities of Western Massachusetts

*** MEDIA ADVISORY ***

Experts To Address New Report on Continuing Impact of Opioid Crisis in Rural Communities of Western Massachusetts 

DATE:        Friday, Sept. 6, 2019

TIME:         8 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

WHAT:       Massachusetts Health Policy Forum: Addressing the Opioid Crisis in Small and
                  Rural Communities in Western Massachusetts

WHERE:   University of Massachusetts Amherst, Campus Center Auditorium,
                  1 Campus Center Way, Amherst, MA

WHO:        Research panelists include Constance M. Horgan, professor and director at
                  Brandeis University’s Institute for Behavioral Health;
                  Ph.D. student Robert Bohler, Institute for Behavioral Health; Dr. Peter D. Friedmann,
                  associate dean for research, UMMS-Baystate, and chief research officer,
                  Baystate Health; and Elizabeth Evans, assistant professor,
                  UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Sciences

The Massachusetts Health Policy Forum, in partnership with The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation and support from RIZE Massachusetts, Baystate Health and the UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences, will release a new report that closely examines and seeks to combat the disproportionate impacts of opioid use disorder on the small, rural communities of Western Massachusetts. The event is open to the media.

In 2018, as the rate of opioid-related overdose deaths decreased overall in the Commonwealth, signaling progress, the counties of Franklin, Berkshire, Hampshire and Hamden experienced a 73 percent increase in fatal overdoses, according to the latest statistics from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Moderated by Greenfield Community College President Yves Salomon-Fernandez, the research panel will discuss the findings of the report, which was written by Horgan and Bohler for the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum. Then a stakeholder panel will address the challenges and explore the innovative approaches underway to tackle the crisis.

Stakeholder panelists include Debra McLaughlin, coordinator of the Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region, Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington, Dr. Ruth A. Potee, director of Addiction Services at Behavioral Health Network; Liz Whynott, director of Harm Reduction at Tapestry; Deirdre Calvert, director of the Bureau of Substance Abuse Addiction Services, Massachusetts Department of Public Health.