The Pain. Pill. Problem. Conference
On August 25th, “The Pain. Pill. Problem” conference was held at Northrup Auditorium on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Over 1,200 were in attendance, including physicians, health care professionals, public health officials, addiction treatment providers, peace officers, corrections officials and community leaders.
Among the list of esteemed presenters and speakers for the day-long conference were three experts from the Steve Rummler Hope Foundation: Vice President Lexi Reed Holtum spoke about the need for wider access to naloxone; Board Member and Addiction Medicine physician Dr. Charles Reznikoff spoke about the need for access to scientific, evidence-based treatment for the disease of addiction; and Dr. Chris Johnson, an SRHF Board Member and Emergency physician, spoke about the need to reframe the discussion of pain management to include a wider variety of treatments than simply prescribing a dangerous drug.
Other speakers of note were: Governor Mark Dayton, U.S. Attorney Andy Luger, Minnesota Senator Chris Eaton, Recovery Advocate William Moyers, U.S. Representative Tom Emmer, chief medical officer of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Dr. Marvin D. Seppala, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who said to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “Prescription drug abuse has reached crisis levels, and we should leave no stone unturned in our efforts to reverse this deadly trend. I was proud to participate in today’s critical summit on developing new tools and sharing best practices to help fight this devastating epidemic.”
Link to the article: http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-conference-tackles-problem-of-prescription-drug-abuse/322889231/
The conference ended on a positive note with all involved resolved to work together to create solutions to the “Pain. Pill. Problem” in Minnesota and beyond.