Please join us on Thursday, October 24, 2024, at 2 PM as we focus on “Evidence-based Practices to Prevent Overdose: National Findings from the HEALing Communities Study and Its Local Impact.” One can register for this free, virtual event, here.

Featuring Alexander Y. Walley, MD, MSc, Care Continuum Core Director, HEALing Communities Study, Massachusetts Medical Director, Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Addiction Services, and Professor, Boston University Avedisian & Chobanian School of Medicine, participants will learn about the

1) HEALing Communities Study’s implementation and findings.

2) Learnings from the Franklin County/North Quabbin context and Action Plan.

3) Proposed next step effort and innovations.

Launched in 2019, the HEALing Communities Study was a bold experiment. Part of its approach was to invest 343.7 million dollars in 67 communities across the four states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio to reduce opioid-related fatalities using various strategies to implement three goals:

1) increasing naloxone distribution and overdose prevention education,

2) increasing access to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD), and

3) improving opioid prescribing safety. Massachusetts had 16 communities participating in the study, of which the four Franklin County and North Quabbin communities of Athol, Greenfield, Montague, and Orange were combined into one community cluster.

Part of the Opioid Task Force’s 2024 HEALing Communities Study Lessons Learned Educational Series.