Why public health responses have racial preferences
One of the reasons I became an addiction counselor and obtained advanced degrees in social work was my awareness that people in power neither resembled nor came from those communities most in need. In 1990, after I completed a 30-day addiction treatment program in Louisville, Kentucky, I decided that rather than returning to my job […]
Missouri Humanities to Award Leaders, Authors, and Educators
Each year Missouri Humanities recognizes outstanding citizens throughout Missouri for their achievements in and dedication to the humanities. This year the organization is proud to recognize four Missourians in the following categories: Distinguished Literary Achievement, Excellence in Education, Exemplary Community Achievement, and Partnership in the Humanities. Nominations are collected from across the state and chosen […]
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Reaffirms the Constitutionality of ICWA
(PORTLAND, Ore. August 9, 2019)— Today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals published its decision in Brackeen v. Bernhardt, the federal court challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The court’s decision affirmed the constitutionality of ICWA, recognizing the unique political status of tribal nations and upholding the federal law that is so critical […]
Local Experts Talk Next Steps To Address Missouri’s Opioid Crisis After Discouraging 2018 Outcomes
A few weeks ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released some positive statistics related to the ongoing opioid crisis. While drug overdose deaths in the U.S. had reached record levels in 2017, the nation saw an overall 4.2% decline in 2018. In Missouri, though, the 2018 outcomes were far less hopeful – despite an […]
Durbin Introduces Bill To Make Cahokia Mounds A National Historic Park
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today introduced a bill that would designate the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site as a National Historic Park. Cahokia Mounds is currently a National Historic Landmark, but Durbin’s bill would provide a new designation that ensures protection for the ancient mounds in St. Clair and Madison counties along […]
David Patterson Silver Wolf: Missouri needs new plan to tackle opioid crisis
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that, after decades of relentless increases, there is finally evidence that the number of fatal drug overdoses is declining. Averaged across all states, in 2018, there were 4% fewer deaths. Experts from around the country expressed cautious optimism that the money and effort spent to […]
Opioid overdose should be treated like attempted suicide: with an emergency hold
In the last half-century, the United States has endured three major drug epidemics. The first began in the 1970s, around the end of the Vietnam War when veterans returned home addicted to heroin. The death rate due to overdoses at that time was about 1 per 100,000 people. America’s second drug epidemic happened in the 1980 […]
WashU Expert: First Native American U.S. poet laureate will inspire the nation
Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, has been selected as the 23rd U.S. poet laureate, a move that will inspire Native American people throughout the country, says Kellie Thompson, director of the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. “Her selection will inspire us in expected ways […]
Pow Wow 2019: ‘Keep Them Sacred’
The theme of this year’s Pow Wow at Washington University in St. Louis is “Keep Them Sacred: Honoring Generations of Indigenous Women.” The 29th annual event, a celebration of American Indian cultures, will be held Saturday, April 20, in the Washington University Field House on the Danforth Campus. Hosted by the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian […]
Why Aren’t More Doctors Embracing Medication-Assisted Treatment?
A new op-ed on STAT News highlights a troubling concern in regard to medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Author David A. Patterson Silver Wolf, PhD, opined that the reason why methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone aren't more widely used to treat opioid use disorders (OUDs) may be due to "branding"—specifically, concern on the part of primary care physicians about the stigma associated […]
Do business concerns keep doctors from treating opioid addiction?
One morning last week as I arrived at our new addiction treatment center, the CAPA Clinic in St. Louis, one of the social work student interns I supervise couldn’t wait to tell me about the “excitement” they’d experienced in the few hours the clinic had been open for the day: a patient had been stabbed, another was […]
Medications to treat opioid addiction are effective, though not widely used
With more than 2 million Americans suffering from an opioid use disorder and the escalating rate of deaths from opioid overdoses reaching about 130 per day, efforts to date have had little impact in curbing this crisis across the country. As a result, a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released on March […]