Opioid Response Conference ignites important conversations

    It is a staggering fact that drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50 and it's difficult to understand the degree that the undercurrent opioid drug issue has fermenting a deadly epidemic.
    The group Pathways to Prevention formed a public forum for brainstorming and sharing ideas on opioid preventing. The North Central Washington Opioid Response Conference was held at the Leavenworth Fire Station on Friday, March 15.
    "We are here today because we have learned that at least three people in Washington state die every single day from a drug overdoes. We are here to see if there's anything we can do to work together to stop some of these things that go on and focus on prevention," said Senator Linda Parlette, executive director of North Central Accountable Community of Health.
    The three hour window, 9 a.m. until noon, allowed good conversation, interactive audience brainstorming and a training that included a Narcan kit. The session was being broadcast and hosted at ten different locations within the region, including Leavenworth. Across the region there was 280 interested individuals signed up, with roughly 20 people at the session based at the fire station.
    "We have to recognize that a lot of work was being done in Chelan, Okanogan and Douglas counties already. We didn't want to duplicate that, we wanted to work together and build upon it," said Parlette.
    The session opened with a Webinar from two speakers, Dr. Charissa Fotinos and Caleb Banta-Green. Both experts in the field and offered different important elements that play into the topic of addiction and opioids. Banta-Green heavily focused on prevention methods whereas Fotinos laid the foundation with facts, research and statistics surrounding addiction and overdose.
    Fotinos opened with alarming numbers (both statewide and regional) that made the epidemic concrete for the audience. She covered slides from North Central regional resources (i.e. Chelan-Douglas Together for Youth is an organization prevention grantee) to prescribing trends. However, it wasn't all doom and gloom - she had a encouraging local statistic to share.   
    "Looking more recently, the number of overdoes related deaths in Chelan have decreased, where the other three counties have seen an increase," said Fontinos.
    Banta-Green strayed closer on preventive action and explaining the reasoning behind each. He did pair some shocking facts as well and emphasized that the line between prescribed opioids (i.e. Oxycontin) and hard, street drug heroin is very faint. He concentrated on reminding the audience to remain vigilant, especially on the youth, when opioids are in possession.
    "The fundamental issue that's going on here is that us as humans have a natural predisposition toward opioids - but historically most of us weren't exposed to them and now a majority of us are which is a major reason for the massive change we've seen the last twenty years."  
    It appeared brainstorming in a large forum where ideas can bounce between concerned individuals in the community is a productive way to help lessen the devastating statistics.
    "The whole purpose of this is to develop some community action plans or projects that can be implemented in the community," said Christal Eschelman, conference chair.