Thank you to all who participated in our all-day virtual meeting on May 4, 2022. The connection with others working in addiction medicine or working with folks involved in the care whether it be prevention, harm reduction, or even aspects of telehealth that effect how we care for patients, was palpable…through the screen!
Evaluations are trickling in and we are manually tabulating your responses. Thank you and please continue to send them in.
And so we are on to planning a live meeting for next spring. Our target date is April 29, 2023. We are looking to Portland (or maybe a little south of there…we will see).
The following are ideas on our organization in the next year:
Membership!! Do you think that your organization (ie, where you work) values your participation in caring for some of the most marginalized patients? NNESAM members shared that some organizations will pay for membership. If you are able to explore this, please let me know!!
Advocacy: On a local, regional, state or national level. We are in small states…we have opportunities to share our experience, expertise and goals. NNESAM members can easily garner resources to assist in bill review, testifying and letter writing. Meeting with our legislators is also strongly recommended.
Chapter Updates: We are actively reviewing and revising the BYLAWS of NNESAM so that they come into alignment with ASAM Constitution and Bylaws. A committee will be reviewing this and have this ready to submit to the Board of Officers as well as the Membership by the end of the summer in order to have ASAM BOD approve! Stay tuned.
We continue to want to be available to those who are interested in having addiction medicine colleagues and feel like they might be alone. Please reach out to us, we are collecting lists of opportunities in which to be involved. Some examples are ECHO programs such as: https://chhs.unh.edu/sites/default/files/media/2022/04/sud_echo_flyer_v4.pdf. Others will be offered and we will do our best to keep you updated.
Until next post…
Molly Rossignol, DO FAAFP FASAM