UC Clermont Hosting STAND Summit

UC Clermont College will host a STAND conference from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, April 12, at 4200 Clermont College Drive, Batavia. Start Talking About a New Direction for your Community, or STAND, is a campaign to raise awareness for opiate (narcotics) abuse in the Clermont County community.

Last year, the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services (ODADAS) indicated several “hot spots” for heroin usage in the state of Ohio, and Clermont County was one of those areas, according to Karen J. Scherra, executive director of the Clermont County Mental Health and Recovery Board. “In the past few years, Clermont County has experienced dramatic increases in the number of accidental overdoses from heroin, the number of cases in local courts associated with opiate drug use, and in the number of people admitted for treatment of opiate abuse,” Scherra said.

“This summit is an invitation to the community, parents, business community, college and anyone else who wants to learn about the problems and solutions for dealing with the opiate epidemic. This interdisciplinary summit pulls together experts in the area of social work, addictions, nursing and criminal justice.  Please join us for this important discussion,” said Jill Gomez, instructor and area coordinator for Human Services, Social Work and Addiction Studies at UC Clermont College.

The community is invited to participate in this conference and STAND together. The goal of this one-day event is to bring community members together to gain knowledge surrounding the issue and to build partnerships to address the local challenges. The event is sponsored by the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office, UC Clermont College, UC’s College of Nursing, the Coalition for a Drug-Free Clermont County and the Clermont County Mental Health and Recovery Board.

Who should attend:

  law enforcement officials, social workers, medical professionals, mental health providers, nurses, prevention specialists, pharmacists, government employees, school officials, parents and all concerned citizens.

Please register for the event online:

www.standclermont.eventbrite.com

. For more information, please email Jill Gomez at

jill.gomez@uc.edu