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Fathers Lost in the Overdose Crisis: Prevention, Mentorship, & Rebuilding Families
The group of people that are dying of overdoses at the highest rate, by far, are men in their 30s-50s. This group is also statistically less likely than others to ask for help. This is one of the biggest reasons why it can be difficult to implement effective prevention strategies targeting working age men. My guest this month is Dr. Monty Burks, Deputy Director of the Tennessee Governor’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative, which seeks to empower community resources to tackle the biggest challenges of our time, including overdose, addiction, and recidivism. Monty is also a certified peer recovery specialist with years of experience engaging people with substance use disorder and meeting them where they are, so I could think of no better person with which I wanted to discuss one of the main consequences of these deaths: the impact on their families. After all, many of these men were fathers, as are many of those men still in the throes of active addiction. What can we do to reach this surprisingly vulnerable population and help them become the best versions of themselves? In this conversation, we talk about the ways that we the people of Tennessee can step up to help, from foster care to peer recovery to even just listening to someone who needs to be heard. Learn more: Governor’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative: https://governorsinitiative.org/ SMART: http://www.smart.tennessee.edu/ LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM
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39:56
Changing Healthcare Culture: The Billion Pill Pledge and Non-Opioid Pain Treatment
Despite significant changes at the federal and state level, the rate of opioid prescriptions remains startlingly high. The most recent data shows that Tennessee is still hovering around 60 prescriptions for every 100 people in the state. And again, that’s prescriptions, not pills. As such, many patients are still facing the same on-ramp to opioid medications that got stuck in the opioid crisis in the first place. My guests this month are Brand Newland and Michael Doty of Goldfinch Health, Melissa Armstead of Southern Tennessee Health System, and Kathy Federico of Lifepoint Health. In 2024, Goldfinch received a grant to implement a primary prevention program focused on non-opioid pain treatment in surgical settings, and they partnered with a hospital in Lawrenceburg, TN, located in the rural, south central portion of our state. The early success of the Billion Pill Pledge in Lawrenceburg genuinely surprised me. I worked in rural emergency departments from 2014-2018, during the rise of fentanyl, and so I know first hand how significant it is to so dramatically reduce visits to the ED for pain control. In this conversation, we talk about the program, how it works, how it rolled out in Lawrenceburg, and what the future of non-opioid pain treatment may look like, at both the clinical, the scientific, and the policy levels. Learn more: Goldfinch Health - The Billion Pill Pledge: https://www.goldfinchhealth.com/billion-pill-pledge/ Southern Tennessee Regional Health System, Lawrenceburg: https://www.southerntnlawrenceburg.com/ Lifepoint Health: https://www.lifepointhealth.net/ SMART: www.smart.tennessee.edu/ LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM
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36:31
Finding Opportunities to Save Lives With Overdose Fatality Review Teams
Overdose Fatality Review, or OFR, is a fairly new and yet already proven strategy for identifying gaps in recovery ecosystems. In other words, you bring together people from healthcare, law enforcement, criminal justice, harm reduction services and more to jointly examine cases of fatal overdoses and find out how these people fell through the cracks. Lauren Savitskas works for the Institute for Intergovernmental Research on behalf of the Bureau of Justice Assistance to provide technical assistance for the implementation of OFR teams across the country. Trevor Henderson, SMART’s Middle Tennessee Substance Use Response Consultant, joins Lauren as well as Sharena Cathey of the Knox County Health Department and Denise Martin of the Rutherford County Medical Examiner’s Office to provide perspective on how OFR teams have been implemented in Tennessee, showcasing how varied and dynamic this strategy can be. In this conversation, we explore why this strategy breaks down data silos, identifies actionable solutions, and leads to long term relationships, including opportunities for further innovation. Learn more: OFR Toolkits: www.ofrtools.org OFR Fact Sheet (LAPPA): https://legislativeanalysis.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/OFR-Fact-Sheet-FINAL-1.pdf Model OFR Legislation (LAPPA): https://legislativeanalysis.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/LAPPA-Model-Overdose-Fatality-Review-Teams-Act.pdf SMART: www.smart.tennessee.edu LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM
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41:19
Maury County's Fiscally Conservative Approach Pays Off
Late last year, Maury County Commission approved the spending of $920,770 in opioid settlement funding, abating the opioid crisis in their community from multiple angles. But it’s more than just the broad and comprehensive approach that caught our eye at SMART. The formal and transparent procedures of the Maury County Opioid Abatement Committee have made it so that any local resident can follow along and see exactly how these dollars are being allocated. On the show this month is Doug Lukonen, the Maury County Finance Director and Chair of the county’s Opioid Abatement Committee, and Brandon Faun, Financial Administrative Assistant, who was instrumental in creating the documents and procedures of the committee’s abatement community grant process. It’s clear that the Finance Office provided some crucial insight, as the guiding principle for the committee has been that though these funds last 18 years, the amounts change significantly over time - and as such, so should the county’s plans. This was an excellent conversation with a lot of actionable takeaways for county officials. Most of all, the reminder that the allocation deadline for 2023 funding is only one month away. Learn more: Maury County Opioid Abatement Committee: https://www.maurycounty-tn.gov/645/Maury-County-Opioid-Abatement-Committee TN Opioid Abatement Council County Funding: https://www.tn.gov/oac/county.html SMART: smart.tennessee.edu LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM
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45:32
From Busting Pill Mills to Battling at Home: An Officer's Daughter Finds Recovery
From 2001-2011, as the prescription opioid crisis spiraled out of control, Kim Harmon, then with Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, went undercover to bust pill mills, among other investigations into medical fraud. Shortly after she progressed up into a new role, however, her daughter Taylor’s own actual struggles with substance use disorder began to spiral out of control, and suddenly this law enforcement officer, once tasked with imitating people with addiction in order to stop the flow of illicit pills, now had to figure out how she could help her own daughter find recovery. And yet despite all her experience and resources, it was not an easy road. Taylor’s struggles might sound familiar to many Tennesseans. Despite growing up in a peaceful childhood, a personal tragedy caused a tendency to over-drink into a full blown disorder, closely followed by a problem with benzos, opioids and other so-called hard drugs. Fortunately, however, her story of sobriety should be equally recognizable: she found a strong community of peers in recovery and they helped Taylor find her own path. This is a fascinating, far-reaching conversation that touches on many topics. If I had to boil it down, though, I might say the big takeaway is that anybody and everybody is susceptible to addiction, and the most important thing we can do from a policy perspective is to make sure people with substance use disorder have real access to resources that make a difference. Hosted and produced by Jeremy Kourvelas. Original music by Blind House. Learn more: SMART: smart.tennessee.edu LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM
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49:59