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July 10, 2019St. Joseph, MO |  By: Simon Clark

2019 Opioid Summit to be held July 23rd

Prescription drug and opioid misuse continues to be a public health emergency with overdose deaths being the leading cause of unintentional injury or death in America.

The city of St. Joseph Health Department and the Buchanan County Opioid Taskforce will be holding a summit over educating the public about the risks of opioid use.

St. Joseph's Health Department Public Information Officer, Stephanie Malita says along with the general public, many treatment centers can also learn different ways to combat opioid abuse.

"They learn so much from each other.  The treatment centers have different approaches to treatment, so if they have somebody that isn't responding to the type of treatment that they offer, now they know more about the other treatment centers in the area and they can refer to a clinic that's really going to work for them."

This summit is open to the public. Malita says they hope to see many people attend who can both educate and learn.

"You'll see professionals that work in law enforcement, that work in treatment and recovery, medical providers, peer counselors, and then folks that have lived experience with addiction, family members who have gone through this with a person from their family and may be able to offer some insight from that perspective.   We hope to see educators attend the summit."

The 2019 Opioid Summit will be held Tuesday, July 23rd from 8:30 am to 4 pm at the Missouri Wester State University's Fulkerson Center in St. Joseph. The summit is open to the public, but attendees must register in advance at 2019nwmopioidsummit.eventBRITE.com as space is limited.