Startling data shows drug overdose deaths in Hawaiʻi account for nearly one-quarter of all fatal injuries, including deaths from prescription opioids. It’s statistics like this, gathered by the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health (DOH), that motivated a University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo professor to join an expert panel for a televised special on how to prevent these deaths.
On August 31, Roy Goo, an associate professor at the UH Hilo Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy will be featured on a 30-minute program, Overdose Awareness: Prevention and Education set to air on KHON–TV.
“One of the biggest challenges surrounding this issue is in overcoming the social stigma that surrounds drug overdoses,” said Goo. “Addiction needs to be viewed as a disease, and we need to address the underlying issues causing it, like we would with any disease. Medications are often only one part of a treatment plan.”
- Related UH News story: College of Pharmacy boosts fight against opioids in Hawaiʻi, May 10, 2019
Goo will join panelists from the healthcare industry, DOH and community advocacy groups to focus on factors that can lead to overdoses, substance identification and resources available for those at risk.
Goo serves as co-chair of the Hawaiʻi Opioid Initiative’s Prescriber Education and Pain Management working group. The group’s objectives include developing an increased understanding of the benefits and risks of opioids, increased awareness of unsafe opioid use, expanded patient use of alternative treatment options and improved patient access to overdose treatment.
In honor of International Overdose Awareness Day, the program will air twice, at 7:30 p.m. on KHII and at 9:30 p.m. on KHON.
