![\"Lucian](\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2016\/09\/america-divided-17958_-417-508x298.jpg\")
<\/a>Lucian Read, \u201cAmerica Divided\u201d co-creator, left, and Joseph Keferl, College of Education and Human Services dean, talk about \u201cAmerica Divided,\u201d an eight-part docu-series. (Photo by Will Jones)<\/p><\/div>\n
Campus collaborators \u2014 including the College of Education and Human Services<\/a>, College of Liberal Arts<\/a>, Boonshoft School of Medicine<\/a>, College of Nursing and Health<\/a> and the\u00a0School of Professional Psychology<\/a> \u2014 and area partners work collectively to bring attention to events and initiatives to decrease drug use, opioid overdoses and deaths.<\/p>\n In May, a multidisciplinary team traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with legislators and offices, including the Centers for Disease Control and the Office of National Drug Control Policy to discuss how universities can impact this and other complex health issues.<\/p>\n The College of Education and Human Services has joined forces with the East End Community Center, Dayton Police, Dayton Mediation Center, Families of Addicts and other community partners to start Conversation for Change. Open to anyone affected by addiction, Conversation for Change facilitates access to lifesaving addiction recovery options and treatment. The innovative program has received attention from Michael Botticelli, the head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.<\/p>\n Conversation for Change is a \u201cnon-judgmental way of raising awareness that help is available, that you can choose whenever you\u2019re ready for it,\u201d said Huma Bashir, assistant professor of human services and a mental health clinician.<\/p>\n The program has saved several lives, Bashir said.\u00a0\u201cI am very pleased with the success of this program. Our faculty and students are working alongside our community partners to literally save lives. Because of this success, we are now expanding Conversations for Change in Springfield,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Two years ago, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and his clinical staff visited Wright State, challenging faculty to design a plan to combat drug use in Dayton.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Integrated Health Institute model is being created to encourage academic and research disciplines to work together, hand-in-hand with the public to address complex community health issues head-on,\u201dsaid Joseph Keferl, College of Education and Human Services dean. \u201cWe have world-class expertise at Wright State, we have decades of research and powerful partnerships in our communities. We must harness the expertise across campus, working together as a multidisciplinary team, alongside our amazing community partners, so that we can solve these complex health issues and improve the health and vitality of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n “Cumulatively we have the expertise-the key is to now integrate our expertise and energy so that we can tackle problems more rapidly, across the full spectrum of the problem, in coordination with our communities, to achieve lasting results,”Keferl said. “This is our challenge and our opportunity to quite literally save Dayton. Together we will demonstrate a new collaborative model for Ohio and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n The importance of why the community\u00a0must come together is portrayed in the final moments of the documentary,\u00a0Keferl said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last scene is really to show scenes that don\u2019t shy away from the reality of the cost,\u201d said Lucian Read, \u201cAmerica Divided\u201d co-creator. \u201cAnd put viewers in the situations so they understand how awful and emotional the cost is for the family and the person who died.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cAmerica Divided,\u201d an eight-part docu-series highlighting different issues of inequality in the United States, was screened at Wright State. Continue reading