Neighborhood Place Sponsors Community Forum To Address The Impact Of Addiction

Bridges of Hope Neighborhood Place joins with several community partners to host a day-long forum focused on the rippling effects of addiction on Saturday, May 12.   Entitled “Addiction 101: The Ripple Effect of Heroin and Other Drugs”, the event will be held at Dismas Charities at St. Ann’s Center, 1515 Algonquin Pkwy., from 12 – 4 p.m.

The purpose of the forum is to bring together individuals and families that are dealing with addiction as well as service providers, community leaders, advocates, nonprofits and other agencies to learn more about what the opioid epidemic looks like in our community, and explore some of the causes and steps that may be taken to combat this epidemic.  The event is free and open to the public and will feature presentations from a number of experts and several tables with representatives from agencies ranging from treatment and other supportive services.

Louisville, like so many cities across the country, is facing an opioid epidemic that has resulted in thousands of overdoses and hundreds of deaths.  According to the recently released Coming Together for Hope Healing and Recovery – a report and plan to address substance use and misuse by Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness –  the age-adjusted drug overdose death rate in Louisville in 2016 was more than double what it was in 2011.  Furthermore, substance use disorder and overdose impacts every neighborhood.

The featured presenters and agenda are as follows:

• 12:00 – 12:15 p.m. Welcome by Gena Redmon Harris, Director of Louisville Metro Office of Resilience and Community Services, a partner agency in Neighborhood Place
• 12:15 – 12:45 p.m. Understanding Addiction by Dr. Patrick McKiernan, Lecturer, U of L, Kent School of Social Work and Director, Sober Solutions House
• 12:45– 1:15 p.m. Impact of addiction –  Individual, by Kim Moore, Case Manager with Reimage, a program which provides a second chance to youth  and young adults who are involved with the court system
• 1:15 – 1:45 p.m. Impact of addiction – Family, by William Doyle, LMFT MA Med, Family Therapist, Centerstone, whose office uses a client-centered, trauma-informed approach
• 1:45 – 2:00 p.m. Break
• 2:00 – 2:30 p.m. Impact of addiction – Community, by Major Brittney Garrett, Administrative Commander with Jeffersontown Police Department who runs the Angel Program
• 2:30 – 3:00 p.m Impact of addiction – Hope, Healing and Recovery, presented by staff with Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness
• 3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Impact of addiction – Country, by Andy Beshear, Kentucky’s Attorney General,
  Hosted several substance abuse awareness forums across the state
• 3:30 – 4:00 p.m. Questions and Closing

Vendors will be on hand throughout the event to provide resources and information in the following areas: treatment, counseling, prevention, harm reduction, social services, and family support, as well as the needle exchange mobile unit, a drug deactivation pouches giveaway that safely destroy prescription drugs at home, and Hep A vaccines.  Participating agencies include Louisville Metro Departments of Public Health and Wellness as well as Resilience and Community Services, Neighborhood Place, the Office of Safe and Health Neighborhoods, Centerstone, Dismas and St. Ann’s.

“Like a pebble tossed in a pond, we all feel the ripple effects of addiction,” said Nannette Dix, administrator for the city’s Resilience and Community Services agency at the Bridges of Hope Neighborhood Place and who is also part of the city’s One Love Louisville Campaign, Substance Abuse Prevention Work Group.  “Our goal for this event is to offer education, training and collaboration to help us all be better equipped to face the epidemic that touches our families, friends and community members.”

For more information about the event, contact Nannette Dix at Nannette.Dix@louisvilleky.gov or 634-6057.