Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) is partnering with the Maryland Department of Health, the Charles County Department of Health and the Charles County Sheriff’s Office for a Community Overdose Action town hall.

 

Held from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 25, in the Boardroom of the Jesse L. Starkey Administrative Building, panelists will include Superintendent of Schools Maria V. Navarro, Ed.D., Dianna Abney, MD, county health officer, Sheriff Troy Berry, and Emily N. Keller, the state’s special secretary of overdose response.

 

The town hall will feature a short presentation and allow members of the community to speak on topics related to substance use and awareness. Speakers can register in advance to speak at the event and are asked to keep comments to two minutes or less to allow for as many comments to be heard as time allows. Speakers will be called in the order they registered.

 

To register to provide comments during the town hall, visit https://forms.gle/w88KJq2jbcwBBoAT6.

 

The meeting will be livestreamed at www.ccboe.com and at the CCPS YouTube page. Comments cannot be submitted virtually during the meeting.

 

The sheriff’s department’s Heroin Overdose Prevention Education — HOPE — House will be on site for tours. The HOPE House is a mobile unit that features a recreation of a teen’s bedroom designed to educate parents of where their children might be hiding drugs and other harmful items. The health department is expected to have information on naloxone, often called NARCAN, an over-the-counter opioid overdose treatment. The department will offer additional materials and resources for parents and caregivers.

 

The Maryland Opioid Operational Command Center provides the most recent available data related to fatal and non-fatal overdose statistics in the state, as reported by the Maryland Department of Health. In the state during 2020 there were 548 deaths attributed to heroin, 453 deaths from prescription opioids, 566 deaths attributed to alcohol, benzodiazepines were found to have caused 114 deaths, there were 921 deaths attributed to cocaine and 2,342 deaths were the result of a fentanyl overdose.

 

For more information about substance use treatment and information, call SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services) at 800-662-4357. CCPS has a substance abuse awareness and prevention site at https://www.ccboe.com/parents/substance-abuse-awareness-and-prevention with resources and information.

 

The Starkey building is at 5980 Radio Station Road in La Plata.