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Collaborative Impact Needed for the Opioid Epidemic
Acacia Network, the leading Latino integrated care nonprofit in NY, began in 1969 to address the consequences of heroin in the South Bronx. Our founding leaders, Carlos Pagan, Julio Martinez, Gumersindo Martinez, Hector Diaz, Evalina Lopez Antonetty, and Lorraine Montengreo, among others,...
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Reducing Opioid Overdose Deaths: NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Responses
Let us address the epidemiology of overdose deaths in New York City. Like cities and states around the United States, New York City is in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic. In 2016, someone died every seven hours of an overdose in New York City, resulting in 1,374 confirmed deaths. More New...
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Veterans Heroic Battle with the Opioid Epidemic
How can we ever fully thank our veterans for their service? As a group of health care professionals, we have an obligation to provide outstanding clinical care to this heroic population. Every Veterans Day we celebrate the service of all U.S. Military Veterans. We know that this courageous group...
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What’s Hidden in the Hallways: A Look Inside Teenage Opioid Use
Walking through the hallways of any high school in America, you will notice student cliques that have existed for generations. You will find your scholars, your athletes, your artists, your so-called “outcasts,” your musicians, your “popular” kids, and anyone and everyone else that falls...
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What Do We Know About Social Workers’ Use of Heroin?
Much has been written lately about the opioid epidemic in the United States. By and large, the vast majority of current opioid users are young, white males who use either heroin or fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid. But these opioid users are not only our clients, or potential clients. They are...
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WellLife Network Provides Vital Services to Stem the Tide of Opioid Addiction
Opium is an extract of the exudate derived from seedpods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. Cultivated in the ancient civilizations of Persia, Egypt and Mesopotamia, archaeological evidence and fossilized poppy seeds suggest that Neanderthal man may have used the opium poppy over thirty...
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The Opioid Epidemic: A Consumer’s Point of View
As Gertrude Stein would have said it: addiction is addiction is addiction. This was the central theme of the focus group that got together to talk about the opioid epidemic: the pitfalls, how it all happens, what helps for real, and the power of peer support. We all have our stories. Some of us...
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New York State Office of Mental Health Using Medication-Assisted Treatment and Other Resources to Fight the Opioid Epidemic
Every day, more than 130 people die in the United States as a result of opioid overdose. The opioid abuse epidemic has become a national public health crisis with devastating economic, societal and human costs. People with mental illnesses served in the public mental health system have...
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A Root Cause of the Opiate Drug Abuse Epidemic
An epidemic of opiate abuse and addiction continues to ravage communities throughout the United States. Approximately 183,000 Americans succumbed to opiate overdoses between 1999 and 2015, and countless more have suffered the ancillary effects of addiction that include the loss of employment,...
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Mental Health Services and Opioid Use and Dependence: A Non-Sequitur?
What does mental health have to do with mitigating the opioid epidemic? Isn’t it a problem for substance disorder programs, or addiction doctors? Well not really, if you consider the rates of opioid use and opioid use disorder (OUD) in patients seen in the community-based, non-profits in NYS...
