AIRED: June 27, 2016 – 11 am PST
TITLE: “The Opioid Epidemic: Heroin and prescription pain meds drug overdose deaths outnumber fatal car accidents in the US”
SPECIAL GUEST: Dr. Marvin Seppala
WEBSITE: www.hazeldenbettyford.org
Responding to the national opioid epidemic, Hazelden Publishing and clinicians from its umbrella organization, the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, have developed a comprehensive curriculum to help hospitals and other treatment centers treat addiction and prevent overdose deaths in their communities.
According to Marvin D. Seppala, MD, the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s chief medical officer, and author of Clinician’s Guide to the Twelve Step Principles, and a co-author of When Painkillers Become Dangerous, Pain-Free Living for Drug Free People, and Prescription Painkillers, addiction to opioids—the group of drugs that includes heroin and prescription pain medications—is especially difficult to treat and unlike other drugs relapse often means death.
The Centers for Disease Control reports that drug overdose deaths now outnumber fatal car accidents in this country. And, research now shows that patients who relapse after treatment and return to their old dosage after having lost the tolerance for it are at higher risk of overdosing.
Join us as Dr. Sepalla describes how the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation has evolved over the years to become the nation’s largest nonprofit provider of addiction treatment and recovery resources, and the launch of its revolutionary COR-12™ program in 2013. “This curriculum has been a labor of love, developed by an entire organization,” Dr. Seppala states, “It sprang from tragic necessity, and by putting our best clinical minds together, innovation emerged.”
ABOUT MARVIN SEPPALA
Marvin D. Seppala, MD, is chief medical officer at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, and an adjunct Assistant Professor at the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies. His responsibilities include overseeing all interdisciplinary clinical practices at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, maintaining and improving quality of care, and supporting growth strategies for Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s residential and nonresidential addiction treatment programs. Seppala obtained his MD at Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota, and served his residency in psychiatry and a fellowship in addiction at University of Minnesota Hospitals in Minneapolis. Seppala is author of Clinician’s Guide to the Twelve Step Principles, and a co-author of When Painkillers Become Dangerous, Pain-Free Living for Drug Free People, and Prescription Painkillers, Hazelden Publishing.
