Speakers share frontline perspectives at Opioid Crisis Forum
Around the time his mother died in July of last year, Brian Keith relapsed. Keith, whose struggle with drugs and alcohol began when he was a teenager, has suffered from substance abuse disorder for nearly two decades. At his job at Savers Bank, Keith would fall asleep at his desk, and call out frequently as he continued to use.
It took him months to admit the full scope of his disease to the bank’s human resources division, but when he finally did, his recovery path began. In September, he went into a four-day detox program at Spectrum Health Systems, followed by time at New England Recovery Center. Seven months later, he is still sober, free of the obsession to use drugs and alcohol, and back to enjoying the job he always loved.
Keith shared his story with a group of over 150 doctors, healthcare professionals, and others at the Worcester Business Journal’s inaugural Massachusetts Opioid Crisis Forum, held Wednesday morning at the Beechwood Hotel in Worcester.
Since January of 2015, the state has added over 500 treatment beds for substance use, improved its data collection system, and implemented core competencies on how to treat the disease for medical and dental students, among other things, said Allison Bauer, director of the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Overall, Bauer said her strategy to help curb the epidemic largely centers around emphasizing prevention, hearing as many new and innovative ideas as possible, and continuing to create public/private partnerships.
A panel discussion emphasized the role the opioid crisis plays in the workplace. Even though there has been a great effort in recent years to de-stigmatize substance abuse disorder, people are still afraid to talk about it with their employers because they fear judgment, said Kurt Isaacson, president and CEO of Spectrum.
That’s why it’s important for employers to have an open dialogue around substance abuse disorder with their employees that begins the day they’re hired, he said.
The program closed with brief remarks from Dr. James Baker, a Holden resident who over the holidays lost his son to a drug overdose. Shortly before his son died, Baker said the two of them had a discussion about the best way to fight the drug epidemic. His son said the stigma needed to be eradicated, and narcan and treatment should be more widely available.
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