FALMOUTH – After a year of increased opioid overdose deaths in Massachusetts, first responders, healthcare workers, policy makers, law enforcement, researchers and other community shareholders will come together June 5 in a virtual “Falmouth Forum on Opioids and Overdose” to discuss and educate the public about innovative approaches to help ameliorate the effects of this crisis and related policies.
Special guest will be Dr. João Goulão, Portugal’s Director General of the Service for Intervention on Addictive Behaviors and Dependencies, who has been recognized for global leadership in helping to improve the opioid crisis in his country over the past 20-plus years.
“We need to offer more services for men,” said Colleen Berumen, director of Opportunity House, a homeless shelter in Vacaville. “Statistically, 80 percent of our homeless are men. They receive 20 percent of the services,” said Berumen.
Child care spaces are also impossible to find for millions who need them. The Investigative Unit found biases and perceptions make child care access especially challenging single fathers.
“I call and they say, ‘OK. where’s the mother at?’ I’m like, ‘It’s me.’ They’re like ‘Can you get somebody else to call back?’ It’s just ridiculous,” said John Jones, also a single father, after being questioned by a daycare worker.