Wellness & Well-being Highlights June 3

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of June 3, 2024

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog highlights provides yet another twist in the efforts to reduce opioid deaths: Medetomidine…while at the same time dives into how people in NC and CO are responding to the OUD crisis—to the ongoing debate on how to address HEAT in the workplace—to the election of Mexico’s next president…a woman for the first time in their history. This week, as we come to the close of Mental Health month, I would like to discuss how a Cook County sheriff’s department is utilizing virtual technology to provide Mental Health assistance in the field. In a world of what appears to be across the board worker shortages, innovation is key to remaining relevant. Hardly a week goes by where a news story does not mention: 1) the Mental Health needs of a given community or sector and, then, immediately follows up by saying there is a shortage of MH professionals in the US; and 2) another seemingly innocent citizen has been shot by a police officer. As noted, police are not the best qualified to help someone with a MH crisis. Yet, nearly 1 in 4 deadly law enforcement shootings involves a person with a serious mental illness. This is why and how the CVAP (co-responder virtual assistance program) comes into play. De-escalation is key to keeping ALL parties safe. In fact, the use of a police-provided tablet to connect a person requiring assistance with a MH counselor in real time not only protects the counselor but allows for a more efficient use of this counselor’s time to handle additional calls. While one may argue that in-person encounters may be more effective, we must keep in mind that ~40% of people in the US live in an area with a shortage of MH professionals…especially when it comes to rural and economically-stressed urban areas. Recent stats show that nearly 60% of CVAP calls were related to MH and >20% involved SUDs. More importantly, the CVAP was used 650 times in 2021 without a resulting arrest or use of force!

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mental-health-counselors-911-sheriff-virtual-solution/

Women / Vets / Homelessness

Construction Work & Road Safety

Medetomidine: The New Fentanyl OD Culprit

KUSH & Sierra Leone

>300k US Children Lost Parents to ODs

CO high school students & ODs

NC’s fight against opioid ODs

Harm Reduction + Clean Needles = Illegal?

Sheriff / MH Counselors / Technology

PTSD & Canadians

American Workers & Loneliness