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PHOTOS: Third annual Northeast Mississippi Addiction and Recovery Summit

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mississippitoday.org – Eric J. Shelton – 2024-10-01 11:55:31

Community members and healthcare professionals gathered for the third annual Northeast Mississippi Addiction and Recovery Summit in Tupelo, Miss., on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/

Tupelo — The Northeast Mississippi Addiction and Recovery Summit drew community members and professionals to the Cadence Bank Conference Center on Sept. 17. Organized by Terry Baber, director of the Northeast Mississippi Health Alliance, and hosted in collaboration with the United Way of Northeast Mississippi and Mississippi State University’s Department of Psychology, the aimed to empower attendees with tools for tackling addiction.

Community members and healthcare professionals network and greet each other during the third annual Northeast Mississippi Addiction and Recovery Summit in Tupelo, Miss., on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi

The day began with registration and networking, leading to a welcome lunch that highlighted the critical role of community in recovery efforts.

Keynote speaker Dr. Brent Boyett, an addiction medicine specialist and the former chief medical officer of Pathway Healthcare, addressed the opioid crisis. He discussed the $55 billion national opioid settlement, noting that the pharmaceutical industry is being held accountable for its role in fueling the epidemic. Boyett also challenged the rationale for continuing opioid prescriptions for chronic pain.

Dr. Brent Boyett gives the keynote address during the third annual Northeast Mississippi Addiction and Recovery Summit in Tupelo, Miss., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

“Addiction isn’t a failure of willpower; it’s a disease that rewires the brain,” Boyett said. “You can’t place logical thought on addictive thinking.”

who struggled with addiction spoke at the summit. 

“I just remember feeling that rejection and kind of abandonment at a small age,” Casey Wortman of Saltillo said. “I tried to commit suicide at age 11, and my drug use began. When I was using… I was a mess, and I hurt everybody around me.”

Partick Davis, left, and Casey Wortman, right, share their recovery stories during the third annual Northeast Mississippi Addiction and Recovery Summit in Tupelo, Miss., on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

Patrick Davis of Tupelo reflected on how recovery impacted his relationships.

“I couldn’t really connect with anybody,” Davis said. “I had nothing to talk about unless we were using. I got clean, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have a sister.’”

Breakout sessions focused on crisis intervention and substance use prevention, Narcan training. Rep. Sam Creekmore, who chairs the House Public Health and Human Services committee, provided a legislative update on addiction initiatives, including a bill that allows the state Health Department to distribute naloxone to more groups. Community leaders explored collaborative recovery strategies.

Lyndsie Davis, a counselor at the Wellness and Counseling Centers of Tupelo and Oxford, talks about navigating the impact of trauma and addiction during the third annual Northeast Mississippi Addiction and Recovery Summit in Tupelo, Miss., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

“Our goal this year was to bring all the stakeholders in our region together, give them the resources to empower, educate, and expand our recovery ecosystem. It was a collaborative effort among community stakeholders, professionals, and individuals in treatment,” Baber said. “We think our community is on board in helping us expand that recovery ecosystem. That’s our focus going forward.”

The attendance at the event indicates a community interest in addressing addiction and mental health services as local communities face challenges from the opioid crisis.

Attendees listen as Partick Davis and Casey Wortman share their recovery stories during the third annual Northeast Mississippi Addiction and Recovery Summit in Tupelo, Miss., on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Captain Tammy Reynolds, Mississippi of Narcotics, speaks about found on the streets and in stores while presenting during the third annual Northeast Mississippi Addiction and Recovery Summit in Tupelo, Miss., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Terry Baber, director of Northeast Mississippi Health Alliance, speaks during the third annual Northeast Mississippi Addiction and Recovery Summit in Tupelo, Miss., on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
House Public Health Chairman Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, gives a legislative update Addiction and Recovery Summit during the third annual Northeast Mississippi Addiction and Recovery Summit in Tupelo, Miss., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Emily Presley, a Narcan trainer with Communicare, gives training during the Northeast Mississippi Addiction Summit in Tupelo, Miss., Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Emily Presley, a Narcan trainer with Communicare, demonstrates the use of Narcan and explains its -saving potential during a training session at the Northeast Mississippi Addiction Summit in Tupelo, Miss., on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi Today

Southern Miss oral history center launches podcast about Mississippi in World War II

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mississippitoday.org – Simeon Gates – 2024-10-10 12:41:00

The of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage launched a new longform about in World War II.

The 10-episode first season of the “Voices of Our People” podcast covers World War II from the Pearl Harbor attack to Armistice Day. The podcast consists of oral histories from Mississippians who experienced the war on the homefront and overseas, as well as storytelling from historians at USM’s Dale Center for the Study of War and Society. Mississippi musician and personality Bill Ellison serves as the host.

“By combining the insights of our state’s leading scholars with the memories of those who lived it, the ‘Voices of Our People’ attempts to contextualize our shared experiences with the goal of gaining a more grounded view of history,” said Ross Walton, who digital production and preservation at the oral history center and its other podcast called “Mississippi Moments.”

“Each season of the series will examine a different historic that shaped who we are as Mississippians and Americans,” Walton said.

The 20th anniversary of the USM center’s “Mississippi Moments” podcast inspired Walton to create a new podcast using the oral history center’s extensive collection of oral histories from World War II.

“Often unfiltered and raw, these interviews capture the deep, visceral reactions to such an uneasy age,” said Dr. Kevin Greene, historian and director of the oral history center. “They give voice to the voiceless in a way only qualitative interviewing can.”

Listen to Voices of Our People at this link.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1871

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-10-10 07:00:00

Oct. 10, 1871

Octavius Catto’s grave, located at Eden Cemetery in Cottingdale, Pa. Credit: Wikipedia

Octavius Catto, a 32-year-old educator and activist who had pushed for Black Americans to be treated as equal citizens, was assassinated during an election day uprising in Philadelphia, which had the nation’s largest population of African Americans. 

Born free in Charleston, South Carolina, he moved north with his family, where he became an educator, minister, activist and athlete. 

When the came, he recruited Black soldiers for the Union Army. After the war ended, he fought for the desegregation of Philadelphia’s trolley cars. He played a role in the passage of a bill that barred segregation on transit . A conductor’s refusal to admit Catto’s fiancée to a streetcar helped bring about the new

On election day, a mob of white thugs roamed the community, attacking Black who tried to vote. One of those , Frank , confronted Catto, shooting him in the heart. Kelly escaped, but was and returned to trial, where an all-white, all-male jury acquitted him. 

Catto’s headstone remembers him as “the forgotten .” The city of Philadelphia has erected a monument in his honor outside the city hall. It was the first public monument in the city to honor a specific Black American.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Youth mental health task force makes recommendations, including workforce development and addressing cell phones in schools

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mississippitoday.org – Gwen Dilworth – 2024-10-10 05:00:00

The committee tasked with studying young people’s mental health made recommendations to the Oct. 1. 

The group proposed measures to shore up the state’s youth mental health workforce, enhance behavioral health training for school officials and school resource officers and screen students statewide for mental health concerns. 

“Our mental health resources are so sparse and stretched,” said State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney at the task force’s final meeting on Sept. 18.

Other proposals included requiring all school districts and colleges to partner with their local community mental health center, inventorying available mental health resources in the state and requiring that school districts issue policies on the use of cell phones in the classroom. 

The K-12 and Postsecondary Mental Health Task Force, composed of legislators, state officials, mental health and education professionals and one student, met five times from July to September to hear from youth mental health experts and state .

Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford, sponsored the bill that created the committee in response to growing concerns from educators and health leaders about Mississippi and adolescents’ declining mental health. 

There is a dearth of mental health professionals who work with young people, experts and state officials told the committee.

The task force recommended that school psychologists receive a $6,000 salary supplement from the state. Nationally certified school counselors and nurses already receive this supplement.

There are just 519 school therapists statewide, Wendy Bailey, the executive director of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, told task force members. That amounts to one for every two public elementary and secondary schools in the state. 

The group proposed that the Mississippi Department of Education set a goal to raise the number of school counselors and school psychologists to a ratio of 250 students to one. 

Mississippi’s current school counselor to student ratio is 400 to one, said Lance Evans, the Missisispi State Superintendent of Education.

Task force members proposed that all teachers and administrators receive Mental Health First Aid Training, a program that teaches participants to identify students who have or are developing a mental health or substance use problem and connect them with appropriate resources. 

School resource officers should receive standardized law enforcement officer training to be employed in a school setting, mentorship training, suggested the committee. 

Committee members and experts were in of implementing universal mental health screenings for students in order to identify mental health conditions early.

The task force recommended that mental health screeners be funded by the School Safety Grant Program in all school districts, though each district would be allowed to use a screener of their choosing. 

“We have to make mental health screenings as routine as vaccines and hearing exams and eye exams,” said Phaedra Cole, the executive director of /Region 6 Community Mental Health Center. 

A statewide ban on cell phones in school elicited much discussion, but the task force ultimately chose to recommend that the legislature require school districts to individually implement policies for cell phone and social use in the classroom.

Eight states have implemented state-wide policies that ban or restrict cell phone use in schools, according to KFF. 

All of Mississippi’s surrounding states have taken steps towards a cell phone ban or statewide restrictions. Louisiana is the only state to ban the use of electronic devices on school grounds with a new law taking effect during the 2024-2025 school year. 

“I’m for a statewide ban,” said House Public Health and Human Services Chair Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany. “…If we can ban it in the state, it would take that pressure off the school boards and I think greatly improve the mental health of our children.” 

“I don’t think we need to ban cell phones,” countered Melody Medaris, the executive director of Communicare, North Central Mississippi’s community mental health center. “…You’re going to take away one of their opportunities to reach out for help.” 

She pointed to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline as a use for cell phones in the classroom. 

Legislators will consider the task force’s recommendations during the legislative , which begins Jan. 7. 

The task force was chaired by Rep. Rob Roberson, R-Starkville and chair of the House Education Committee, and Sen. David Parker, R-Olive Branch and chair of Senate Accountability.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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