Bemidji State University Hosting Panel On The Opioid Crisis

Bemidji State University’s Student Center For Health and Counseling is sponsoring a panel tomorrow that will focus on covering aspects of the nation’s current opioid addiction epidemic. The panel, called “The Opioid Crisis: Learn More About the Many Pathways to Recovery,” will be held at 8 p.m. in Hagg-Sauer Hall room 100.

The panel will be led by Margot Kelsey, a Bemidji local and opioid treatment specialist, who will share information on opiate, alcohol and other drug addictions along with treatment options. Additional members of the panel include Travis Carlson, a nationally-registered emergency medical technician, Sgt. Robert Billings of the Paul Bunyan Drug Task Force, and Patty Bittner, a methamphetamine community coordinator.

“Addiction services should be geared at making the client well. Addiction is not a choice, but recovery is,” said Kelsey. “Helping sick people get well should be our priority. It is not a moral failing, it is a disease.”

The panel is sponsored by Leech Lake EMS, Indian Health Services, the Rural AIDS Action Network and FaceIt Together-Bemidji.