In 1987, Health Minister Michèle Barzach imposed the liberalization of syringe sales in France. For a long time, the struggle against HIV rested on this political measure alone. In Europe, buprenorphine for the treatment of opiate addiction was first registered in France and by the year 2000 was available [...]
In my December 13, 2019, article on Switzerland’s Approach to the Opioid Epidemic, I detailed the history of the Swiss opioid epidemic and the “Four-Fold” Approach they used to address their epidemic. While the Swiss stressed prevention, they also allowed for a controversial (in the US) Heroin Substitution Program [...]
Frequent readers of my blog may recall my multiple articles on different aspects of the epidemic as it relates to the workers’ compensation industry, and how CompAlliance has structured their Opioid Protocols as a result. On June 6, 2018, in my article, Opioid Limits on Prescribing – Has the [...]
Last week I attended the CCMC case management conference. I usually attend the WCRI conference every year and this year the schedule for the two conferences conflicted. I missed WCRI and #1 felt a little bit left out, and #2 it was in Arizona instead of Boston in February, [...]
I don’t need to quote statistics on opioid misuse disorder to set the tone for this article. That’s a good thing I guess; it must mean our overall awareness of the topic is current. When I first started talking about this topic at conferences, about 70% of my [...]
I am always honored when an organization asks me to speak on the Opioid Epidemic. I am not a professional speaker by any means. I don’t travel around the country speaking at conference after conference on this topic. I mainly speak at the regional or local level, with a [...]
I am not referring to discussing sensitive topics such as the upcoming inauguration or religion. Rather, I am referring to obtaining an honest and accurate drug and alcohol usage history from the injured worker, or your patient. When I was in nursing school we were taught when asking how [...]
