Health Summit On Opioid Crisis Held

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) – More than 150 people gathered Wednesday for a conference on the Opioid Crisis.

The event called “Opioid Crisis Next Door” included speakers addressing challenges to treating opioid abuse, the experience of people in treatment, Naloxone use, coalition-building and other matters.

“It’s about all of us coming together,” said Pat Schou, executive director of the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network. “Coalitions shouldn’t just be healthy people or public health people or the coroner or police officers or legal. It’s about everybody together.”

National speaker psychiatrist Dr. Omar Manejwala described the opioid crisis as a “wicked problem”: lacking a definitive definition and a stopping rule that shows when a solution has been found.

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