Governor Baker Releases Opioid Working Group Recommendations

The cost of implementing the initiatives will currently be $27 million in Fiscal Year '16, which will be paid for through a combination of new state funds, MassHealth, and reprioritization of existing state and federal grant funds.

For more information and to read the full Action Plan and recommendations, please click here. 

Gosnold to Host "Playing Above the Influence" event in Orleans on July 17th 

On Friday, July 17, 2015, Gosnold on Cape Cod will team up with the Cape Cod Baseball League's Orleans Firebirds and Brewster Whitecaps to provide an afternoon of family fun. The event will take place from 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM at Eldridge Field, 78 Eldridge Park Way, Orleans. "Playing Above the Influence" is a substance-free event designed to give families and young people an opportunity to interact with positive role models.  All players in the Cape Cod Baseball League sign a contract agreeing to be drug and alcohol free.

Chris Herren will be the special guest and Firebirds and Whitecaps players will be on hand to join in the fun, meet the kids and address the players.

The event is free and all are welcome to attend. Please look for our other Playing Above the Influence event with the Falmouth Commodores to be held on July 29th. This event is sponsored by the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office, Cape Cod Five Foundation, Nauset Marine, Nauset Disposal, Cape Cod Ready Mix, and Cape Cod Broadcasting.

Gosnold on Cape Cod Holds Guiding Good Choices Training

Throughout the month of July, Gosnold is training staff members in Guiding Good Choices, an evidence-based parenting education for parents of middle-school-aged children with an emphasis on drug education and prevention and how parents can best guide their young ones toward healthy decision-making. 

The program will be offered at the start of the 2015 school year. For more information, please contact Mary Fisher at 844-558-HELP (4357) ormfisher@gosnold.org or Patty Mitrokostas at 508-540-6550 x6002 or pmitrokostas@gosnold.org.

New Gosnold on Cape Cod Grief and Addiction Weekly Support Group

Designed for anyone who has lost a loved one to the disease of addiction, Gosnold is offering a new Reaching Out group for loss and addiction support starting Wednesday, July 22nd, 6-7:30 p.m. at Gosnold Counseling Center in Centerville (located at 1185 Falmouth Road, Centerville, MA 02632). This group is facilitated by a certified professional who is trained in grief and loss. All Reaching Out groups are free to attend and open to our community. Gosnold offers additional Reaching Out family support groups in Centerville, Falmouth, Scituate, and Harwich.

For more information, please contact Mary Fisher, Director of Reaching Out, at 844-558-HELP (4357) or mfisher@gosnold.org.

For this Vital Signs report, FDA and CDC analyzed data from the 2002-2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Heroin trends among demographic and substance-using groups were compared for 2002-2004, 2005-2007, 2008-2010, and 2011-2013.

Key Findings Include:

• Nearly all (96 percent) people who reported heroin use also reported using at least one other drug in the past year with more than half (61 percent) using at least three other drugs.
• The people most at-risk of heroin abuse or dependence include non-Hispanic whites, men, 18-to-25 year-olds, people with an annual household income less than $20,000, Medicaid recipients, and the uninsured.
• People who abuse or are dependent on:
• prescription opioid painkillers are 40 times more likely to abuse or be dependent on heroin.
• cocaine are 15 times more likely to abuse or be dependent on heroin.
• marijuana are 3 times more likely to abuse or be dependent on heroin.
• alcohol are 2 times more likely to abuse or be dependent on heroin
• As heroin abuse or dependence has increased so has heroin-related overdose deaths. From 2002 through 2013, the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled.

Drug overdose deaths in the United States have more than doubled since 1999. Heroin and prescription opioids are major causes of drug overdose deaths. Naloxone is the standard medication used for reversal of the potentially fatal respiratory depression caused by opioid overdose. This report looks at the expansion of opioid overdose prevention programs across the United States.
 

As a result of the research, the authors found that organizations training and providing naloxone kits to laypersons can reach large numbers of potential overdose witnesses and result in many reported overdose reversals. 

To view the full report, click here.