Overdose Awareness Week

Overdose Awareness Week, the week during which we memorialize International Overdose Awareness Day (Wednesday, August 31), is a time of remembrance and recommitment to preventing overdose and supporting people struggling with substance use and substance use disorder (SUD) within our communities, throughout our nation, and worldwide.

During Overdose Awareness Week and year-round, the Cooper Center for Healing mourns the lives lost to overdose in New Jersey and worldwide; acknowledges and addresses grief and trauma of patients, providers, and staff; and remains ever dedicated to the Center’s mission and vision: that all patients struggling with pain, psychological trauma, and/or substance use have a home within the medical system and routinely receive compassionate, evidence-based medical treatment, allowing them to live full and satisfying lives.

The confluence of the overdose crisis and COVID–19 pandemic has devastated communities, with overdose deaths rising to more than 100,000 deaths across the U.S. in 2021, as reported by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Synthetic opioids, including illicitly manufactured fentanyls (IMFs), continue to fuel the overdose crisis and are involved in nearly two-thirds of overdose deaths, as further reported by the NCHS. This simultaneous rise in overdose deaths and ongoing lack of access to evidence-based treatment, as indicated by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and a study published in Health Affairs, intensifies the urgent need to increase access to lifesaving harm reduction strategies and medication for addiction treatment (MAT) across all communities.

Thankfully, excellent treatment options are available at the Cooper Center for Healing. The center offers a steadfast, compassionate, and empathetic culture rooted in health equity and humanity, envisioned and employed by the center’s physician leader, Kaitlan Baston, MD, DFASAM, in collaboration with the center’s clinical leadership. A robust multidisciplinary team of medical specialists in addiction medicine, toxicology, emergency medicine (EM) and emergency medical services (EMS), internal medicine, family medicine, and psychiatry provides quality interdisciplinary specialty care in the hospital, ambulatory, and community settings. The center also has interdisciplinary clinical staff spanning behavioral health clinicians, nurses, and patient navigators who provide wraparound services for patients in a biopsychosocial model and help them to address social determinants of health (SDOH).

The Center for Healing provides innovative care for patients with SUD, in addition to pain, trauma, and psychiatric disorders, at outpatient treatment locations in Camden, Blackwood, and Pennsville. Inpatient treatment is available at Recovery Village Cherry Hill at Cooper. Clinical services include both outpatient and inpatient specialty medical services through a variety of programs: transition care for people recently released from incarceration; an emergency department (ED) and hospital bridge program; a hospital consultation service; a low-barrier walk-in clinic; integrated addiction and infectious disease care; dual diagnosis psychiatric and addiction medical care; outpatient group and specialty medical visits; a wrap-around perinatal program, Empowering Mothers to Parent and Overcome with Resilience (EMPOWR), for pregnant and parenting women struggling with substance use or SUD; full coverage services for SUD and mental health for uninsured people including those experiencing undocumentation; and other community-based work.

The Center for Healing is recognized by the State of New Jersey as a MAT Center of Excellence (COE). Through its COE designation, the center hosts Addiction Breakfast Clubs, consortia based in Camden County and other Southern New Jersey regions, open to all MAT providers and providers interested in practice implementation of MAT in addition to all community stakeholders supportive of MAT and harm reduction strategies. Through its recurring meetings, the group facilitates peer collaboration and patient referrals, and strategizes ways to improve integrated care across clinical and community-based settings. To join an Addiction Breakfast Club, please email Patricia Fortunato, Content Manager at the Center for Healing, at fortunato-patricia@cooperhealth.edu.

In recognition of International Overdose Awareness Day, several events will take place on Wednesday, August 31, 2022:

• The Ben Franklin Bridge, Florio Center, and City Hall in Camden will be lit in purple.
• The Camden County Remembrance and Hope Memorial Vigil, hosted by Cooper Center for Healing and COE community partner, the Camden County Board of Commissioners, will take place at 7:30 p.m. at Timber Creek Park, 236 Taylor Avenue and Chews Landing Road in Blackwood. To learn more about the event or to share photos of loved ones to be remembered during the vigil, please click here.
• The Cape May County Overdose Awareness Memorial Vigil, hosted by Cape Addiction Recovery Services (CARES) at Cape Regional Medical Center, will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Wildwoods Convention Center, 4501 Boardwalk. During the event, communities from across the county and Southern New Jersey region will remember loved ones victimized by the crisis and collaborate on overdose prevention strategies. The Cooper Center for Healing will be recognized during the event for dedication to the region and state through its COE, with gratitude to Rachel Haroz, MD, FAACT, Division Head of Toxicology and Addiction Medicine at Cooper and Community Relations Director at the Center for Healing, for clinical leadership, insight, and support across the region and state. Erica Morrison, MPAS, PA–C, Advanced Practice Provider at the Cooper Center for Healing and Prescriber Lead for the Cape May County Addiction Breakfast Club, will also be recognized for her clinical leadership, insight, and support via linkages to care across the region. To learn more about the event or to share photos of loved ones to be remembered during the vigil, please click here.

For more information about substance dependence and substance use disorder, click here.

Support Available Through Cooper:

• For more information about the Cooper Center for Healing, click here.
• For information about Cooper’s Division of Infectious Diseases and Early Intervention Program, click here.
• For substance dependence and SUD outpatient treatment information, click here.
• For substance dependence and SUD inpatient treatment information, click here.
• The Center for Healing, in partnership with Cooper Population Health, is offering SUD patients access to COVID–19 vaccinations and free transportation to and from scheduled vaccine appointments at the Camden County Health Hub, Cooper University Hospital Vaccination Center in Camden, and Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center. For more information about vaccines for COVID–19 or to make yourself or a loved one an appointment to get vaccinated, please click here or call 1.800.8.COOPER (1.800.826.6737). When making an appointment, please ask about the free transportation option.