The ONE Program in the NDSU School of Pharmacy received the 2023 Trailblazer Award from North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and First Lady Kathryn Burgum at the Recovery Reinvented 7th annual conference held in Minot, North Dakota, on October 5.
“Across North Dakota, individuals, communities, and organizations are working hard to reinvent recovery, eliminating the shame and stigma of addiction, and treating it like the disease it is,” said Gov. Burgum during the award presentation.
“The Trailblazer Award recognizes an individual or group who creatively opens new pathways for people to be supported in their recovery,” explained First Lady Kathryn Burgum at the conference. “That person also thinks outside the box and charts a course that inspires others to follow. The program established by these trailblazers is proactively helping patients in communities,” said First Lady Kathryn Burgum.
The ONE Program helps address potential prescription opioid misuse and overdose as soon as a patient picks up their prescription from their local pharmacy. Since the ONE Program began in 2018, trained pharmacists have provided screenings to help more than 25,000 patients.
Pharmacists and pharmacies enrolled in the collaborative statewide program: receive training on how to screen patients for risk of misuse; educate patients on opioid harm reduction; provide naloxone; and learn how to counsel and refer patients to resources available in the community.
ONE Program team members Dr. Heidi Eukel in the NDSU School of Pharmacy and Dr. Mark Strand in the NDSU School of Pharmacy and Department of Public Health accepted the award on behalf the ONE Program team.
“We want to acknowledge the hundreds of professionals who have done the hard work in our communities to make this program a success,” said Dr. Heidi Eukel. “This includes the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services, our other ONE Program team members, the 300 pharmacists that have been trained and have been executing this program, and our local public health units all across the state who have joined us in this collaboration,” said Eukel.
“We also need to recognize the leadership of Governor Burgum and First Lady Kathryn Burgum, along with many people in the state, who have transformed understanding of substance use disorder,” said Dr. Mark Strand. “It’s now recognized as a disease from which people can recover.”
The ONE Program team at NDSU includes: Dr. Heidi Eukel, Dr. Oliver Frenzel, Dr. Lisa Nagel, Dr. Elizabeth Skoy, Dr. Jayme Steig, Dr. Mark Strand, Dr. Amy Werremeyer, along with NDSU students Alyssa Hodges, Isaiah Ratz, Shraddha Adhikari, Anna Benson, Elizabell Delgado and many other students and graduate assistants over the past six years.
"This award reflects the exemplary efforts of the ONE Program team in the School of Pharmacy to recognize a challenge, engage collaborators, and seek funds to create innovative solutions that help people throughout the state," said Dr. Ron Werner-Wilson, interim dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences. "Their efforts truly align with NDSU's land grant mission."
Recently, the ONE Program announced a collaboration with Public Health Units across North Dakota called Be the ONE. This initiative helps local public health offices place self-contained boxes with all the tools needed to safely provide life-saving naloxone to someone experiencing an overdose. Local public health professionals offer training to community members and provide boxes in public areas in the community.
The ONE Program has also collaborated across the country, assisting pharmacy groups in West Virginia and Idaho in starting programs for pharmacists and communities in those states.
Over the past six years, the ONE Program has been funded through the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services. Pilot funding was provided by various state and local agencies and foundations.
Evidence-based research results about the ONE Program have been published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, INNOVATIONS in Pharmacy, Substance Abuse, Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, American Journal of Public Health, Preventing Chronic Disease, Journal of Pharmacy Technology, and other publications.
The NDSU School of Pharmacy in the College of Health and Human Sciences educates students and practitioners, advances research/scholarship, delivers quality patient care and provides services to the profession.
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