Author: Gretchen Kalar
May 22, 2019 – The 2019 Opioid Misuse & Overdose Prevention Summit is an event that allows North Carolinians to learn about solutions to address the opioid epidemic. The Summit, happening on June 11 and 12 at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh, is a two-day training and networking event with local and national leaders.
In 2017, Governor Roy Cooper and NCDHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen unveiled the NC Opioid Action Plan. Significant progress has been made over that time, but the epidemic has shifted and changed over the past two years. The NC Opioid Action Plan 2.0 will be revealed at the 2019 Opioid Summit.
The updated plan incorporates feedback from partners and stakeholders and will include local strategies that counties, local coalitions and stakeholders can implement.
The mission of the Opioid Summit is to:
• Engage partners in North Carolina in active learning and meaningful discussion to build momentum behind strategic activities that complement overall state and local efforts around opioid misuse, addiction and overdose death.
• Educate and inform North Carolina partners on evidence-based/informed, promising and innovating policies and practices that prevent opioid misuses, addiction and overdose.
• Energize, challenge and connect North Carolina partners to build consensus and rally behind policy and programmatic inventions that focus on social determinants, healthcare, harm reduction, criminal justice, and community strategies around opioid misuse, addiction, and overdose death.
Keynote speakers for the Summit include Governor Cooper; Secretary Cohen; N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein; DHHS Deputy Secretary for Health Services Mark Benton; DHHS Deputy Secretary for Behavioral Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Kody Kinsley; Retired U.S. Navy Admiral James A. “Sandy” Winnefeld, Jr.; Harm Reduction Coalition Executive Director Monique Tula; Professor of Psychobiology and Drug Abuse Expert Bertha Madras; and DHHS Chief Medical Officer for Behavioral Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Dr. Carrie Brown.