Mid-Central AHEC Plans Tribal Opioid Summit
State and Regional Tribal Opioid Summit: Second Annual "Building Solutions, Healing Communities"
The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan and the Mid-Central AHEC are pleased to jointly announce a partnership to host the 2019 conference entitled; The 2019 State and Regional Opioid Summit: Second Annual "Building Solutions, Healing Communities." The conference will be held June 12th and 13th, 2019 at The Soaring Eagle Hotel and Conference Center in Mt. Pleasant.
The tribe previously sponsored its first Opioid Conference and Summit earlier in 2018 with over 425 participants attending. The Mid-Central AHEC staff in partnership with the leadership of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, formed a planning workgroup to keep this momentum moving forward by proposing a 2019 follow-up conference. While the first conference focused on education, information and knowledge building, the second conference will advance action steps for new and innovative methods of grass roots community based treatment, development of new access points, community participation in native healing therapies and emphasize early prevention and interventions for youth.
With funding directives at the federal level from the Health Resources and Services Administration to support to communities addressing the opioid crisis, the Mid-Central AHEC applied for a grant through the Michigan AHEC Program Office and received $46,800 to support the tribe for facilities, food, speaker costs, and travel to manage the conference. The Mid-Central AHEC will help coordinate and manage IT, continuing education credits for physicians, nurses, social workers and pharmacists along with marketing and registration. It is anticipated that approximately 500 people will attend this coming year's conference.
Program content for the conference will highlight specific workshops: providing new access points for all community members to seek treatment, increase knowledge of the correlation to infectious diseases particularly, Hepatitis C since Michigan has the highest rate in the nation, implementing grass roots strategies to address intergenerational trauma in native communities, building Trauma Informed Care systems, identifying best practice state-of-the art SAMSA Tele-mental health methodologies, identifying the impact on the pharmaceutical component in terms of the cost of addiction and establishing new youth early intervention and maternal and child health strategies for all communities.
Kicking off the two day conference will be Dr. Ron Shaw, Immediate Past President of the Association of American Indian Physicians. Dr. Shaw, a former Congressman now serves as the CEO and Chief Medical Officer of the Osage Nation and is Board Certified in Internal and Addiction Medicine.
"We are proud to have the dedication and partnership of the Mid-Central AHEC and welcome them as our Title Sponsor this year," said Erik Rodriguez, Director of Public Relations at the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe. "They have ensured that we are able to make this summit possible again with the ability to cover topics that are so important to all of our communities. With their partnership we are able to bring in national renowned speakers and workshops that will help address real problems in society today."
Executive Director Lisa Hadden, with the Mid-Central AHEC concurs. "The opportunity to support such a large scale conference dedicated to providing the latest in research, community development, healthcare and tele-mental health resources to almost five hundred people, primarily from native populations, is unprecedented." The Mid-Central AHEC is grateful to the Michigan AHEC Program Office for the opportunity to apply for these funds and partner with local organizations to address this immediate crisis.