Opioid addiction summit will be offered as virtual experience
A faith-based conference focusing on opioid addiction will go on, despite the pandemic.
The Rev. Shannon Fleck, executive director of the Oklahoma Conference of Churches, said the organization has decided to make its “Opioid Summit for Communities of Faith” an online experience on Aug. 31 due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19.
“Our whole goal as an organization is to empower faith communities to better serve their people and their communities,” she said. “Addiction is such a complex and overarching issue in people's lives, and we want to provide information and education so that people aren't afraid of talking about it, so they feel empowered to talk about it and better serve their communities by being empowered with knowledge.”
Michael Eric Owens, the conference's program manager, said the summit will include presentations by experts. He said information will be presented to help people learn the signs of addiction, how to seek help, how to create a recovery ministry and how to locate local and regional resources. The summit also will include personal testimonies from people who are in recovery. The event is time to coincide with International Overdose Awareness, which is Aug. 31.
Owens said Fleck wanted to bring attention to the opioid addiction problem, not just in Oklahoma but nationwide.
He said the goal is to get faith communities together “with one voice” to address three basic areas: prevention, treatment and how to support a loved one who has opioid addiction.
“Within that, we also have a lot of resources. For instance, we do a presentation about Narcan and how to properly use that if someone has overdosed,” Owens said.
“We recognize that the church mirrors the larger
society so we're not immune from these issue and concerns. We wanted to jump-start this within the faith community, all faiths, and really create this dialogue.”
Fleck said it's important to note that the virtual webinar is free, but she is asking people to register so the conference will have an idea of who is participating. She said the webinar is set up so that participants can move through it at their own pace.