Surgeon General Vivek Murthy Visits Seattle

Posted by Patricia Devine on August 4th, 2016 Posted in: News from Network Members, Public Health

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This is a guest post from Jim Anderson, Physician Assistant and Dispensary Manager at Evergreen Treatment Services, a PNR Network member.  If you would like to write a guest post please contact Patricia Devine at devine@uw.edu.

On Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s recent stop in Seattle, he visited Evergreen Treatment Services to learn more about medication assisted treatment in Seattle and the opioid epidemic in the Pacific NW and Alaska. Evergreen Treatment Services has been working to transform the lives of individuals and their communities through innovative and effective addiction and social services in Western Washington since 1973.

The Surgeon General also visited the Seattle Police Department, to hear about their efforts to address the opioid epidemic and their successful use of naloxone in reversing 10 overdoses recently. Naloxone is provided for patrolling officers, and its use among police departments is rapidly spreading.

Murthy also spent time with an Opioid Task Force, a group made up of a variety of representatives from governmental and medical agencies and institutions, with a goal of addressing the opioid epidemic, including both heroin and other opioid medications.

While in Seattle, Murthy described what he believes to be the need to view opioid addiction as a chronic disease, and to respond rapidly to known opioid addiction the same way that the medical community responds to other chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The Seattle Times quoted him sharing his thoughts about this with the Seattle Police Department leaders:

“For too many people in America, addiction is a character flaw or a moral failing, but that’s not the case. We have to help people see addiction for what it is, which is a chronic illness of the brain that we have to treat with the same urgency, compassion and skill that we would treat diabetes or heart disease. That shift is going to take all of us.”