County governments and health care providers in three South Jersey counties are teaming up to get extra training for doctors and others around preventing the over-prescription of opioids and consideration of alternatives.
Officials in Gloucester, Cumberland and Salem counties announced the new alliance with the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey to get more providers to go through the “Do No Harm” course that seeks to reduce over-prescription of opioids. Officials said the move is another step in combating the opioid epidemic has taken thousands of lives in New Jersey, with South Jersey especially hard hit.
Angelo Valente, executive director of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey, said prescribers statewide have become more careful about prescribing opioids after taking the training.
“Here in New Jersey, over 95% of prescribers who have participated in previous ‘Do No Harm’ continuing medical education program reported that they learned best practices for prescribing, and 90% of them said that this information helped shape the way that they provided prescribing in their own local practices,” he said.
Stephen Ferketic, the director of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, spoke at the press event earlier this week announcing new scholarships and other steps. “It’s impossible to quantify the incredible losses that we have suffered,” he said. “And I know that all of us have been to so many events where we have collectively mourned.”
Acting Gloucester County Prosecutor Christine Hoffman added, “Each one of those numbers is a life lost and a family shattered. And we will continue to do this fight with all of our partners.”
