Ex-PB resident receives award in addiction care

Dr. Lesley Brooks, chief of addiction medicine for SummitStone Health Partners, recently earned the NCAD Champion award. Brooks received her award at the National Conference on Addiction Disorders West, according to a news release from Psychiatry & Behavioral Health Learning Network.

She is a former Pine Bluff resident, according to a spokesman.

The daughter of the late Harold and Lesly Brooks, she is also the granddaughter of the late John and LouVenia Clark of Pine Bluff and the niece of Gloria LuSear of Pine Bluff, the spokesman said.

Brooks is an advocate for breaking down systemic inequities and a guiding force in the growth of addiction treatment services in Colorado, according to the network news release.

Since 2011, Brooks has also served as assistant medical director for the North Colorado Health Alliance, a position in which she has collaborated with multiple state organizations and taught fellow providers about safe opioid prescribing, how to recognize substance use disorder, and how to implement the use of medication-assisted treatment, according to the release.

“In this country right now, we are having an important conversation about structural inequities and how we have structured opportunities for certain communities to achieve the outcomes that we are getting,” Brooks said in the release. “Nowhere are those inequities larger than at the intersection of race, mental health and substance use. I could not be more excited to be working in this space.”

The NCAD Champion award is presented for exceptional and extraordinary performance and leadership achieved by clinical and executive personnel within the addiction recovery field, according to the release.

Details: https://www.hmpgloballearningnetwork.com/.