As part of COACH’s commitment to education, faculty are working to provide health care professionals with the knowledge to prevent, recognize, and assist in treatment and referral for opioid use disorders within their practice and community. These educational programs bring together a diverse health care audience to encourage communication and collaboration across disciplines. Included in this work is an effort by Drs. Marlowe, Brent Fox, and Haley Phillippe, in partnership with the Alabama Department of Public Health to conduct a series of town hall meetings and summits across the state through the end of 2025 in reference to Alabama’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, or PDMP. The town halls consist of an interactive PDMP demonstration and skills-building exercise led by Auburn personnel with support from ADPH staff. The summit series is designed to focus broadly on drugs of concern. The role of the PDMP will remain a vital component of this summit series. The 2023 Substance Misuse Summit brought together an interdisciplinary audience of over 280 individuals. As of December 31, 2023, 500+ individuals participated in training provided through this sponsored project. These programs are sponsored by the Alabama Department of Public Health through a parent grant funded by the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance.

This project is supported by Grant No 15PBJA-21-GG-02611-PDMP awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the SMART Office. This document’s points of view or opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.