Reducing Opioid Harm through USU Extension Outreach Featured on Next Instead Podcast

Writing grants is a “fun, collaborative process where you see a need and you get to creatively think about what will fix that,” said Maren Wright Voss, health and wellness Extension faculty member, on Instead, a podcast produced by the Utah State University Office of Research. During the 42-minute episode, Voss walks listeners through a brief timeline of opioid addiction in the United States, what can be learned talking to people who have struggled with opioid abuse, how doctors can approach the health crisis, and the evidence-based programs developed and administered by Extension’s HEART Initiative to aid in harm reduction.

Much of Voss’s work focuses on the administration of pain management courses. In these courses, participants learn strategies for reducing pain that are not medication based. These include better sleep strategies, action planning or even stretching. Voss urges people struggling with addiction to take advantage of these alternative methods, and to those who feel there is no point, she says, “Come knowing there is hope.”

To hear more about the work Voss and her colleagues are doing, interested parties are encouraged to attend the next Blue Plate Research event: The HEART of the Opioid Epidemic: A cutting-edge program to address substance use disorder in Utah that will be held online via Zoom on Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021 from 11:30 a.m-1 p.m.