Rockland Connects Hosts an Opioid Awareness Event Series for the Rockland Community

Rockland Connects is excited to announce the launch of their new Opioid Awareness Event Series in Rockland County. On February 27th, 2017 at 6:00pm at the Finkelstein Memorial Library we will be hosting the first event in the Series, which is free to the public.

Despite the impressive efforts by Senator Carlucci to introduce overdose reversal trainings across Rockland County, we lost 35 people to opioid overdose in 2016 – the greatest number of opioid-related deaths in Rockland history. Across New York State, the heroin death toll increased 2,000% between 2005-2014, while the prescription opioid death toll increased 250%.

Over the years, the heroin epidemic has become larger, younger and more suburban. Across the U.S., heroin use has more than doubled among 18-25 year olds. The misuse of prescription painkillers are leading countless of individuals to heroin use: one study shows that upwards of 80% of heroin users started off abusing prescription opioids. Individuals who are dependent on alcohol are two times more likely to be addicted to heroin; meanwhile, those dependent on marijuana are three times more likely; and those who are dependent on prescription painkillers are 40 times more likely to be addicted to heroin.

Join us on February 27th to learn more about the opioid epidemic, the risks associated with opioid use and the resources available to the Rockland community. The audience will have the opportunity to engage in a Q&A with our featured guest: Dr. Chinazo Cunningham, MD, an addiction treatment provider and Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She has spent over a decade providing care, developing programs, and conducting research focused on marginalized populations including drug users, HIV-infected individuals, and the unstably housed. While on faculty at Einstein, she has collaborated with community-based organizations to develop unique and innovative programs to deliver health care to these marginalized populations.

Rockland Connects will also have a resource table with information regarding treatment services, the difference between treatment options, harm reduction, commonly abused prescription medications, homelessness resources, upcoming naloxone trainings, and more.

For more information visit the Rockland Connects website.