Falmouth Forum on Opioids and Overdose

Saturday, June 5th | 2:00 – 6:00 pm

About

The Falmouth Forum will be an on-line webinar to stimulate conversation about best practices and innovations for treatment and overdose prevention, bringing together first responders, healthcare workers, policy makers, law enforcement, researchers, and other community shareholders. The panelists have a wealth of experience, ideas, and knowledge on prevention, treatment, harm reduction and social reinsertion, working on different aspects of the issue in varied fields. They will discuss their work, learn from one another, and help educate the public about their innovative approaches that help ameliorate the effects of the opioid crisis.

Special guest includes Dr. João Goulão the Director General of the Service for Intervention on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (Republic of Portugal) recognized for global leadership in helping to improve the opioid crisis in Portugal over the past 20 plus years.

The event is co-sponsored by Cape Cod Cape Verdean Museum and Cultural Center, the Cape Verdean Club of Falmouth, and the Portuguese American Association of Falmouth.

Register Here
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Program

Panel Introductions / community impact narratives:

Corrie Green, Treasurer, Cape Verdean Club of Falmouth (Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital Plymouth).
Mike Duarte, President, Portuguese American Association of Falmouth (Falmouth Hospital).
Barbara Burgo, Clerk/Curator, Cape Cod Cape Verdean Museum and Cultural Center (Stop & Shop Pharmacy).

Panel 1. A conversation between Dr. João Goulão and Dr. Jody Rich about Portugal’s innovate approach to ameliorate the opioid crisis and comparisons with US approaches and trends

João Goulão, MD, Director-General of the Service for Intervention on Addictive Behaviors and Dependencies, (Republic of Portugal) and Incumbent Chairman of the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (European Union).
Jody Rich, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Brown University, Director of COBRE on Opioids and Overdose, Attending Physician at RI and Miriam Hospitals.

Panel 2. First Responders

EMS
Terrance Rogers, EMS Supervisor, Falmouth Fire Department.
Scott Thrasher, Deputy Chief, Falmouth Fire Department.

Law Enforcement
Edward Dunne, Chief, Falmouth Police Department
Michael Simoneau, Lieutenant, Falmouth Police Department.
Discussant: Brandon del Pozo, PhD, MPA; Former Chief of Police for Burlington, VT; Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The Miriam Hospital.

Panel 3. Hospitals, harm reduction, treatment

Jeffrey Siegert, MD, FACS, Falmouth Hospital.
Dan Gates, LCSW, President & CEO, AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod.
Kevin Ralph, Chief Development and External Relations Officer, Gosnold.
Tanya Kohli, MHA, Director of Prevention and Screening, AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod.
Discussant: Jody Rich, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Brown University, Director of COBRE on Opioids and Overdose, Attending Physician at RI and Miriam Hospitals.

Panel 4. Policy perspectives

David T. Vieira, Massachusetts State Representative (Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee) Town Meeting Moderator, Falmouth.
Dylan Fernandes, Massachusetts State Representative, (Falmouth, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket).
Discussants:
Traci Green, PhD, MsC, Professor and Director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative, Adjunct Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Epidemiology at Brown University, Professor at Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Rhode Island Hospital, Deputy Director COBRE on Opioids and Overdose.
Tami Gouveia, DrPH, Massachusetts State Representative (Concord, Carlisle, Chelmsford, and Acton).

Event Moderator/Organizer

Miguel Moniz, PhD, Brown University & the Center for Research in Anthropology, ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa; COBRE on Opioids and Overdose, Migrant Communities Project Initiative Director.

Key goals of the event

• Promote discussion, de-stigmatize opioid addiction and treatment, and help to prevent overdose.
• Bring together individuals from various perspectives working directly on the issue to share knowledge and to create a broader understanding of the crisis and its community impact, the innovative work being done to confront it, and assessments of challenges to intended outcomes.
• Provide best practices knowledge exchange and networking among Falmouth shareholders with the resources of the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) on Opioids and Overdose, National Institutes of Health, and Dr. João Goulão, Director-General of (SICAD), the Portuguese national government’s drug policy agency.
• Help increase resources for local efforts.

This program is jointly sponsored by the COBRE on Opioids and Overdose (National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH under grant number P20GM125507), the Migrant Communities Project, and the Cape Cod Cape Verdean Museum and Cultural Center, the Cape Verdean Club of Falmouth, and the Portuguese American Association of Falmouth and is organized by the COBRE/Migrant Communities Project Initative directed by Miguel Moniz (CRIA-ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa & Brown University).