New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan has announced a series of regional education conferences to train doctors, nurses and pharmacists in stopping drug addiction and abuse, including best practices for preventing overprescribing opioids.
The first conference will be held on Nov. 13 in Bedford.
The conferences are the result of a partnership including Catholic Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine and the New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program.
The program addresses such topics as assessing opioid misuse risk; counseling patients on opioid safety, risks and benefits, and monitoring them; and modifying or discontinuing the drugs when there is too little benefit or too much risk.
"I applaud the work of these partners and look forward to every hospital and medical center sharing a uniform vision for the use of opioids and the management of chronic pain," Hassan said in a statement Thursday.
The educational conferences were included as part of recommendations made last month to address New Hampshire's heroin crisis by Jack Wozmak, the governor's senior director of substance misuse and behavioral health.
Boston University School of Medicine has trained over 25,000 people in prescribing opioids safely.
N.H. Doctors, Nurses to Be Trained in Stopping Overprescribing
The program addresses such topics as assessing opioid misuse risk; counseling patients on opioid safety, risks and benefits
Copyright AP - Associated Press
