Webinar: Community Consequences of the Opioid Epidemic

The headlines come fast and furious – more than a million Americans dead of overdoses since the year 2000, nearly one in three Americans know someone who is addicted, more potentially deadly doses of fentanyl were smuggled into the U.S. last year than there are Americans – making the use of the term “opioid epidemic” less hyperbole and more obvious fact.

This Thursday, March 23, at 2 p.m. ET, the American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) and the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin will hold a webinar on the societal consequences of the opioid epidemic, particularly as they affect child well-being.

“Community Consequences of the Opioid Epidemic”will draw on findings and insights from the forthcoming volume of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, which uses data from local, state and federal sources to investigate how opioid use disorder impacts the effectiveness of our education system, strains social services including child welfare agencies, and creates fiscal burdens across social welfare infrastructure.

Panelists for the free event – each a contributor to the volume – are:

Colleen Heflin, the chair and professor of public administration and international affairs and associate dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.  She is also a faculty affiliate at the Center for Policy Research and the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion.
Shannon Monnat, the Lerner Chair in Public Health Promotion and Population Health and director of the Center for Policy Research. She is also a professor of sociology and co-director of the Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab at Syracuse University.
Lindsey Bullinger, assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology
Jessica Pac, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jessica Drescher, PhD student in education policy at Stanford University

Jason DeParle, who reports on poverty and immigration for The New York Times and wrote the book A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves, is the session’s moderator.