The Opioid Epidemic: What Everyone Needs to Know
11/11/24 • 58 min
The opioid epidemic refers to the enormous surge in opioid addiction and overdose over the last several decades in the United States. Much of the epidemic has its origins in medical practice. Devastating consequences of the opioid epidemic include increases in opioid misuse and related overdoses, as well as the rising incidence of newborns experiencing withdrawal syndrome due to opioid use and misuse during pregnancy. Opioid overdoses accounted for more than 42,000 deaths in 2016, more than any previous year on record. An estimated 40% of opioid overdose deaths involved a prescription opioid.
Episode VI will explore the less than obvious connections between mental illness and substance abuse. We would like to assert that one, often overlooked foundational connection is, the unhealthy need that leads to the opioid use, which completely destabilizes a Healthy Mental decision-making process. Are we still in an epidemic in 2022? What are harm reduction policies and what have been their outcomes? Which populations are currently most affected? What can individuals, neighborhoods, communities, cities actively do to assist in solving this epidemic? What are good Samaritan laws? Are their signs that the tide is changing? What are the Trust factors in need of transforming that will lead to satisfactory resolutions?
Show Topics and Highlights
There is a lag between technology and knowledge and the criminal justice system
A physician's background beliefs may influence their decision making
My own efforts have been in getting new technologies into African American and Latino communities.
There's what we call an opiate, and then there's what we call an opioid.
Everyone has a genetic element that dictates what their response is to medications
Are doctors ever held responsible, legally?
What training are doctors getting on proper use of opioids?
We've had great difficulty in changing the dosage requirements, which is set by law in some places, and we find that when people get inadequate medication they may end up using drugs to get by
A lot of a prescriptive practices involve the patient being given responsibility of taking the medication correctly.
There is a huge importance in getting a support system around the patient
There's more training and information needed on the best ways to work with people and making sure you're doing right for that person
This is where health equity comes into play. Because it's not just about making things equitable. It's about what investments would have to go on to raise the value of care.
The number of African American physicians is actually about the same numbers as it was the 1960s. Same as for the Latino community.
Profound Conversations Executive Producers are the Muslim Life Planning Institute, a national community building organization whose mission is to establish pathways to lifelong learning and healthy communities at the local, national and global level. MLPN.life
The Profound Conversations podcast is produced by Erika Christie www.ErikaChristie.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The opioid epidemic refers to the enormous surge in opioid addiction and overdose over the last several decades in the United States. Much of the epidemic has its origins in medical practice. Devastating consequences of the opioid epidemic include increases in opioid misuse and related overdoses, as well as the rising incidence of newborns experiencing withdrawal syndrome due to opioid use and misuse during pregnancy. Opioid overdoses accounted for more than 42,000 deaths in 2016, more than any previous year on record. An estimated 40% of opioid overdose deaths involved a prescription opioid.
Episode VI will explore the less than obvious connections between mental illness and substance abuse. We would like to assert that one, often overlooked foundational connection is, the unhealthy need that leads to the opioid use, which completely destabilizes a Healthy Mental decision-making process. Are we still in an epidemic in 2022? What are harm reduction policies and what have been their outcomes? Which populations are currently most affected? What can individuals, neighborhoods, communities, cities actively do to assist in solving this epidemic? What are good Samaritan laws? Are their signs that the tide is changing? What are the Trust factors in need of transforming that will lead to satisfactory resolutions?
Show Topics and Highlights
There is a lag between technology and knowledge and the criminal justice system
A physician's background beliefs may influence their decision making
My own efforts have been in getting new technologies into African American and Latino communities.
There's what we call an opiate, and then there's what we call an opioid.
Everyone has a genetic element that dictates what their response is to medications
Are doctors ever held responsible, legally?
What training are doctors getting on proper use of opioids?
We've had great difficulty in changing the dosage requirements, which is set by law in some places, and we find that when people get inadequate medication they may end up using drugs to get by
A lot of a prescriptive practices involve the patient being given responsibility of taking the medication correctly.
There is a huge importance in getting a support system around the patient
There's more training and information needed on the best ways to work with people and making sure you're doing right for that person
This is where health equity comes into play. Because it's not just about making things equitable. It's about what investments would have to go on to raise the value of care.
The number of African American physicians is actually about the same numbers as it was the 1960s. Same as for the Latino community.
Profound Conversations Executive Producers are the Muslim Life Planning Institute, a national community building organization whose mission is to establish pathways to lifelong learning and healthy communities at the local, national and global level. MLPN.life
The Profound Conversations podcast is produced by Erika Christie www.ErikaChristie.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
Organ Transplant Eligibility and Mental Health Factors
The overriding opinion within the medical community of practice is that caregivers should attempt to reduce psychiatric barriers to successful transplantation. However certain questions remain after years of debate: (i) are current evaluations uniform throughout transplant centers throughout the country? How should we view transplant eligibility criteria that exclude patients with affective and psychotic disorders from transplantation on the basis of their psychiatric diagnosis? These and other questions will be explored during this in depth hour of Profound Conversations with our esteemed guests from the medical community.
Conversationalists:Farha Abbasi, MD Michigan State University Dept. of Psychiatry
Clive Callender, MD Professor of Surgery, Howard University Hospital
Shawn-Paul Harrison Medical Navigator Specialist Louisiana Organ Procurement Association
Anil Paramesh, MD, Professor of Surgery, Urology, and Pediatrics Tulane University School of Medicine
Joey Boudreaux Chief Clinical Officer Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency
Show quotes and highlightsA lot of people think that anyone can become an organ donor. And unfortunately, that's not the case. It's a very small few who suffer a brain injury of some sort. So it's always a sudden event very tragic.
So one, our primary roles, besides obviously saving lives through donation, is to support these families who are suffering through this acute extreme grieving.
I started the transplant program at Howard University in 1973. And as we looked at the situation, the number one problem in transplantation, then and even now has been the shortage of donors.
There is a stigma around mental illnesses, right? And this stigma always arises from lack of information, not having that awareness, and things we don’t know about can lead to fear.
Imagine a scenario where we have a very scarce resource where there are not enough organs for everybody.
Because us as family advocates supporting the family, it's not just for donation purposes, every family should be supported during a time of loss.
We spoke earlier that transplant centers are graded upon your success rate, plus we're trying to look at utility as well as equity.
One of my favorite parts of my job is when the transplant recipient, and those donor families meet.
I think everyone here has expressed that we need more donors, we need more of the community to be part of the donor committee, and every show, I get to say I am a donor, I'm an African American, I'm an elder, by some people standards, and I still want my body to do something for somebody
I would like to say that saving a life is saving humanity
I'd add also to this that some people just aren't healthy enough to give organs. So they can also give tissues. Tissues that can enhance lives can make the blind see the deaf ear, the lame walk again, so that it is in this gift of life that we can have on this.
Profound Conversations Executive Producers are the Muslim Life Planning Institute, a national community building organization whose mission is to establish pathways to lifelong learning and healthy communities at the local, national and global level. MLPN.life
The Profound Conversations podcast is produced by Erika Christie www.ErikaChristie.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Towards Mental Health Literacy
This episode of Profound Conversations will explore the intersection between cultures of care, the dynamics of loss and grieving, as well as the impact that donation has for families that give and receive the gift of life. Our intent for this episode will be to create new understandings and pathways to wellness within the context of great loss.
Our Profound Conversationalists include Dr. Clive Callender, Ingrid Palacios, Nila Schwab, Joey Boudreaux, and our conductor Joia Jefferson Nuri.
Show Topics and Highlights“Over the past year we've been talking about organ donation and how that works. But the one thing we haven't discussed yet, until today, is the grieving process. The world knows more about grieving now then probably did two years ago as we grieve in mass numbers around COVID. “
“My brother wanted to be an organ donor. He wanted to help somebody.”
“If you ever met a donor recipient, they always want to give back. They want to share the story they want to help.“
It's very hard to think when you're in shock, and that's usually what's happening when we approach a family about organ donation.
There are many people who help support families through the organ donation process. What exactly does that "support" look like?
“There are so many different levels of grief. And sometimes it comes back.”
Not everyone is educated to work with different types of grieving, different types of culture.
“We are there to be advocates, we are there to be liaisons, we are there to be those people that will honor those family's wishes.”
“The law requires the deceased persons wishes be followed, whether the family likes it or not. That you if you decided you wanted to be a donor, you will be a donor. And if the family doesn't like it, it is unfortunate, but the donation will proceed.”
There's still a percentage of people who still believe that they need their organs to get into Heaven, that is why more education is needed.
“In the African American community, there is a fear that you will be left to die because your organs are needed, you could keep five people alive. And that the emergency room doctors will not do the best for you, because they want your organs. That's wholeheartedly not true.”
“Grief is ongoing. And someone like me who held it in for quite some time because I didn't know who to say it to, I didn't know if anybody would understand what I was going through. But when I got to LOPA and I tell everyone, my healing began when I began to share my story began to listen to others and and how we can help each other through what we were going through.”
Profound Conversations Executive Producers are the Muslim Life Planning Institute, a national community building organization whose mission is to establish pathways to lifelong learning and healthy communities at the local, national and global level. MLPN.life
The Profound Conversations podcast is produced by Erika Christie www.ErikaChristie.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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