Opioid use disorder is the greatest public health crisis we have faced in generations.
Serving as Worcester County District Attorney, I have prioritized understanding the disease and implementing best practices to address it head on. Recently, I attended the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta, Georgia where I worked with national leaders on this issue to review lessons learned and best practices across the country. The importance of prevention and collaborative efforts were the most consistent themes shared at the summit.
In 2015, I created the Central Massachusetts Opioid Task Force to bring together leaders in healthcare, government, law enforcement, education and the treatment and recovery communities to work in collaboration to solve this crisis. Today, our Task Force has over 300 members dedicated to sharing evidence-based best practices across Worcester County. The goal of the task force has been to spread messages about prevention and steer people towards treatment and recovery, while increasing public safety and strengthening our communities.
We’re seeing some progress from our efforts.