President of Chickasaw Nation Industries (CNI) Health and Technology Solutions Commends First Lady’s Focus on Helping Babies Impacted by the Opioid Crisis
CNI President, Health and Technology Solutions, Ann Speyer participated in a town hall on the opioid crisis with First Lady Melania Trump this past week.
Speaking to a group of students at Liberty University in Virginia in both her official capacity as First Lady and as a mother, Mrs. Trump talked about the devastating effects of opioids, the importance of removing the stigma that comes with addiction to enable individuals to seek help, and the powerful role that students can play in helping to combat this national crisis.
Health and Human Services Secretary Azar and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen joined the First Lady in the town hall discussion.
Since the launch of her “Be Best” campaign in May, Mrs. Trump has dedicated much of her time and energy on the opioid crisis, with a specific focus on babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).
CNI is leveraging its work done with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) to create a model of building capacity to help mothers and babies affected by the Zika outbreak in local communities across the U.S., to tackle the opioids crisis.
The Zika model – which involves building partnerships among clinicians, maternal and child health experts, community leaders, and public health and rapidly deploying locally-hired public health outreach nurses, epidemiologists, and data analysts within 30 local health departments across the country – can be rapidly deployed to improve prevention, detection, and referral of important services to help mothers and babies in need.
Speyer commended the First Lady’s leadership on addressing the needs of babies affected by this devastating crisis and is proud of CNI’s continued support of mothers and babies affected by this crisis in communities across the U.S. through its work with the CDC National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD).
Click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwJBenHUhkA for a video of the Town Hall
Click here https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/melania-trump-discusses-the-opioid-epidemic-media-coverage-and-those-red-christmas-trees/2018/11/28/3b490d2a-f320-11e8-aeea-b85fd44449f5_story.html?utm_term=.8fd1e0a667ad for a summary of the First Lady’s remarks