The Central New York Heroin & Opioid Key Stakeholder’s Summit: A Call to Action

In collaboration with Senator James L. Seward and Bassett Healthcare Network, Leatherstocking Collaborative Health Partners (LCHP) organized a summit March 16, 2017, that brought together key stakeholders in the central New York region who have the ability to influence positive change in regard to the public health impacts of the heroin and opioid crisis. This particular summit was focused on educating key stakeholders about the causes of the opioid epidemic and all of the current initiatives underway in the region to address the crisis. Ultimately, the goal of the summit was to engage in meaningful conversation that will help move these efforts forward toward workable solutions.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Andrew Kolodny

Andrew Kolodny, MD is one of the nation’s leading experts on the prescription opioid and heroin crisis devastating families and communities across the country. He is Co-Director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.  He is also the executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, an organization with a mission to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by over-prescribing of opioid analgesics.
Dr. Kolodny previously served as Chief Medical Officer for Phoenix House, a national non profit addiction treatment agency and as Chair of Psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Kolodny has a long-standing interest in public health. He began his career working for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the Office of the Executive Deputy Commissioner. For New York City, he helped develop and implement multiple programs to improve the health of New Yorkers and save lives, including city-wide buprenorphine programs, naloxone overdose prevention programs and emergency room-based screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT) programs for drug and alcohol misuse.

You can find presentations given at the event here.

Some other Resources: 

LEAF Inc. website

Senator James Seward’s website

2016 New York State Heroin Task Force Website