Opioid Task Force
Opioid Task Force Overview
The opioid epidemic is a public health crisis, devastating urban, suburban, and rural communities across the United States. Each day, 115 Americans die from opioid overdose. Over two million Americans are currently living with an opioid-related substance use disorder. Opioid-related disorders physically and psychologically cripple individuals and destroy family connections. A broad range of civil legal issues are frequently associated with such disorders, including issues related to child support/child custody/guardianship, health benefits, domestic violence, housing, employment, and child abuse and neglect.
As best practices for treatment and recovery emerge, policymakers, the criminal justice system, and public health officials have begun to recognize that a comprehensive, multi-pronged approach is needed both to help people recover from opioid-related disorders and to prevent additional individuals from becoming addicted in the future. There has been increased focus on how legal services and other social services can serve as critical recovery resources alongside medical treatment. For example, dozens of LSC grantees participate in medical-legal partnerships, which are flexible, collaborative arrangements in which legal professionals are embedded in a health care organization to address the unmet civil legal needs of patients that directly impact health outcomes.
Despite legal aid’s impact in helping individuals and families dealing with opioid-related disorders, there remains a significant gap in awareness regarding the prevalence of civil legal issues associated with the epidemic and the role civil legal aid providers can play in addressing those issues. Many organizations responding to opioid-related disorders are unaware not only of the issues facing individuals and families affected by the opioid epidemic, but also of their legal rights.
To address this issue, we are convening an Opioid Task Force comprised of a diverse group of LSC grantees, health care and public health experts, judges, business leaders, and other stakeholders. The primary goals of the Task Force are to:
- Educate public health officials and treatment providers about the legal obstacles patients face in obtaining and remaining in treatment;
- Educate judges, law enforcement officials, child welfare workers, and employers about the civil legal issues connected to medication-assisted treatment for opioid-related disorders;
- Engage with public health officials, treatment providers, and others to promote a comprehensive model of recovery that includes legal aid attorneys as resources for individuals and families affected by the opioid epidemic; and
- Provide a forum for study and discussion of potential best practices for engaging legal aid attorneys in the recovery process, and identify and make recommendations to promote such practices.
To read more about LSC's various Task Force efforts, click here.
To see the Access to Justice and the Opioid Epidemic panel on April 10, 2018, click here or the video below.
For the congressional brieifing on How Medical-Legal Partnerships Assist Victims of Opioid Addiction on April 11, 2018, click here or the video below.
To hear Representative Susan Brooks' message of support on October 17, 2018, click here or the video below.
Opioid Task Force Co-Chairs
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David Hoffman, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP |
Victor B. Maddox, Partner, Fultz Maddox Dickens PLC |
Robert Grey, Jr., Senior Counsel (Retired), Hunton & Williams |
Opioid Task Force Members
Kathryn Cates-Wessel
Chief Executive Officer
American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry
Jay Chaudhary
Managing Attorney/Director of Medical-Legal Partnerships
Indiana Legal Services
Sally Friedman
Legal Director
Legal Action Center
Brandon George
Director
Indiana Addiction Issues Coalition
Jim Harbaugh*
Head Football Coach
University of Michigan
Stephanie Harris
Development Director
Ohio State Legal Services Association
Maha Jweied
Access to Justice Consultant
Former Acting Director, U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Access to Justice
Judge Patricia Keller
Family Court Judge, Sixth Family Court Circuit
State of West Virginia
Jenny Kim*
Deputy General Counsel, Political Law & Vice President, Public Policy
Koch Companies Public Sector LLC
Abby Kuzma
Former Assistant Attorney General and Chief Counsel for Victims Services and Outreach Division; Co-Founder
Office of the Indiana Attorney General; Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic
Ellen Lawton
Co-Director
National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
Richard Lee
General Counsel
Civis Analytics
Patrick Murphy*
Former Undersecretary
United States Army
Cody Nelson
Executive Director
Anishinabe Legal Services
Dr. Robert Onders
Medical Director of Community and Health Systems Improvements
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Richard Pogue*
Senior Advisor
Jones Day
Dr. Elizabeth Quinn
Family Physician & Associate Medical Director
Lynn Community Health Center
Rebecca Rapp
General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer, Ascendium Education Group
Former Judge, Dane County Circuit Court
Chief Justice Paul Reiber
Chief Justice
Vermont State Supreme Court
Julie Reiskin
Executive Director
Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition
Chief Justice Loretta Rush
Chief Justice
Indiana Supreme Court
Tarra Simmons
Skadden Fellow; Co-Chair
Public Defender Association; Washington Statewide Reentry Council
Radhika Singh
Director, Civil Legal Aid Initiatives
National Legal Aid and Defender Association
Deborah Taylor-Tate
Director; Co-Chair
Administrative Office of the Courts; National Judicial Opioid Task Force
Dr. Mishka Terplan
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Psychiatry, Associate Director of Addiction Medicine, and Medical Director of MOTIVATE
Virginia Commonwealth University
Joseph Winkels*
Partner
Carlson, Caspers
Adrienne Worthy
Executive Director
Legal Aid of West Virginia
Salle Yoo*
Former General Counsel
Uber
*Member of LSC Leaders’ Council