That’s Healthful Episode #85: Combating the Opioid Crisis – Substance Misuse & Addiction Resource for Tennessee Initiative Jeremy Kourvelas, SMART Substance Use Coordinator

According to the CDC, a little over a million, people have died from a drug overdose since 1999. In 2020, approximately 75% of the overdose deaths were opioid involved. The opioids identified have been prescription opioids like fentanyl and that the majority of all overdoses both fatal and non-fatal involved multiple different drugs. The State of Tennessee is no stranger to opioid overdoses and deaths from opioid use. Join me for this episode with Jeremy Kourvelas, the program coordinator for the SMART (Substance Misuse and Addiction Resource for Tennessee) Initiative, part of the Institute for Public Service.

More about Jeremy: Though he grew up in Memphis, Jeremy Kourvelas has spent over a decade in East Tennessee. After graduating from the University of Tennessee with a bachelor’s in psychology, he spent more than four years in multiple emergency departments in Knox, Roane, Blount, and Claiborne counties as a medical scribe. He returned to UT for a master’s in public health and a certificate in health policy and became SMART’s first employee in 2022. He also works for the Prevention Alliance of Tennessee, which seeks to advance prevention efforts pertaining to substance, alcohol, and tobacco use disorders.

Resources for this episode:
https://our.tennessee.edu/2018/opioid-facts-in-tennessee/ https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/data/index.html
https://www.tncoalitions.org/
https://smart.ips.tennessee.edu/
https://www.tn.gov/behavioral-health/news/2023/2/24/tennessee-s-opioid-abatement-council-announces-first-round-of-direct-payments-to-county-governments.html