January 18, 2017, Pontiac, Mich. –
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy
School of Government, Harvard University, recognized the Oakland County
Prescription Drug Abuse Partnership today as part of the 2017 Bright Ideas in
Government initiative. The Partnership is part of a cohort that includes
programs from all levels of government — school districts, county, city, state,
federal agencies, and tribal nations, as well as public-private partnerships —
that represent the next horizon in government work to improve services, solve
problems, and work on behalf of citizens.
"Addressing the prescription
drug abuse epidemic requires partnerships at every level to strengthen
education, prevention, and treatment," said Oakland County Executive L.
Brooks Patterson. “I applaud the work of the Health Division and our partners
as we look forward to continuing ongoing efforts to halt drug addiction.”
The Oakland County Prescription
Drug Abuse Partnership was convened March 2015 by the Oakland County Health
Division and is comprised of multidisciplinary members who actively work to
prevent prescription drug abuse and overdose deaths. Partnership members
include local physicians, pharmacists, substance abuse treatment and prevention
agencies, court judges, law enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal
Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Attorney’s Office, public health, academia, and
grassroots organizations.
The Partnership is led with
in-kind resources from OCHD staff, including a director, administrator, health
education supervisor, and a health educator. Staff time includes planning and
implementation of trainings, meetings and events, correspondence, coordination
of promotional campaigns and subcommittees, and research. Achievements include
creating and sustaining a diverse partnership, implementing a Drug Death Review
Committee with Oakland County’s Medical Examiner, providing SCOPE of Pain
trainings to more than 160 physicians, reaching over 300,000 residents via
transit advertising, and establishing three subcommittees.
“These programs demonstrate that
there are no prerequisites for doing the good work of governing,” said Stephen
Goldsmith, director of the Innovations in American Government Program at the
Ash Center. “Small towns and massive cities, huge federal agencies and local
school districts, large budgets or no budgets at all — what makes government
work best is the drive to do better and this group proves that drive can be
found anywhere.”
This is the fifth cohort
recognized through the Bright Ideas program, an initiative of the broader
Innovations in American Government Awards program. For consideration as a
Bright Idea, programs must currently be in operation or in the process of
launching, have sufficient operational resources, and must be administered by
one or more governmental entities; nonprofit, private sector, and union
initiatives are eligible if operating in partnership with a governmental
organization. Bright Ideas are showcased on the Ash Center’s Government
Innovators Network, an online platform for practitioners and policymakers to
share innovative public policy solutions.
Please visit the Government
Innovators Network at http://innovations.harvard.edu for the
full list of Bright Ideas programs, and for more information regarding the
Innovations in American Government Awards.
For up-to-date public health
information, visit www.oakgov.com/health, find
Public Health Oakland on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter @publichealthOC or
call the Health Division’s Nurse on Call at 800-848-5533.
About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
The Ash Center for Democratic
Governance and Innovation advances excellence in governance and strengthens
democratic institutions worldwide. Through its research, education,
international programs, and government innovations awards, the Center fosters
creative and effective government problem solving and serves as a catalyst for
addressing many of the most pressing needs of the world’s citizens. For more
information, visit www.ash.harvard.edu. For more
information, contact Daniel Harsha, Associate Director for Communications, Ash
Center at 617-495-4347.
FOR MEDIA INQUIRIES ONLY: Please
contact George Miller, Oakland County Health and Human Services Director, at
248-858-1293.
| 
