Department of Health, Department of Health Facilities, and Department of Human Services

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) will hold a public meeting from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m., on Thursday, December 21, 2017, with the West Virginia Opioid Response Plan panel.  The meeting will be held at the West Virginia Water Development Authority, located at 1009 Bullitt Street in Charleston, WV.  This meeting is part of an effort to develop an opioid response plan through public engagement and a partnership with regional and national experts to combat the opioid epidemic.  

DHHR’s Office of Drug Control Policy Director Jim Johnson is coordinating the meeting with a panel of public health experts including:  Dr. Sean Allen, Assistant Scientist in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health; Dr. Jeffrey Coben, Dean of the West Virginia University School of Public Health and Associate Vice President of Health Affairs; Dr. Shannon Frattaroli, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins University; and Dr. Sean Loudin, Associate Professor at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine.  Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Associate Dean, Public Health Practice & Training, Johns Hopkins University, will facilitate public comments.  

The public as well as pertinent subject matter experts are invited to attend this meeting to provide comments and share ideas for prevention, early intervention/screening, treatment, recovery, decreasing overdoses, and reducing maternal drug use and neonatal abstinence syndrome.   Speakers will present on the West Virginia Opioid Fatality Report, as well as discuss the stigma often associated with addiction and the significance of treatment. 

Comments received during the meeting will be considered for the West Virginia Opioid Response Plan which will be submitted to the Governor and the West Virginia Legislature.   The public comment period will continue to remain open at dhhr.wv.gov/bph through December 30, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. EST. 

The panelists and Dr. Rahul Gupta, DHHR’s Bureau for Public Health Commissioner and State Health Officer, will be available for interviews before and after the meeting.