71. Get out in front of a public health crisis

AMSA ad lib

Don’t think you’ll be affected by addiction? If you’ve spent any time on the wards, you’ve almost certainly heard disparaging comments about patients suffering from substance abuse disorders—you may have even made some of those comments yourself. Next week there’s a chance for you to learn about better ways to frame this disease, from which physicians themselves are far from immune. The AWARE week is a collaboration between AMSA’s Medical Education team and Community & Public Health team, with the goal of shedding light on addiction and recovery. In November 2016, the surgeon general released a report on addiction in the United States and declared the opioid epidemic in the United States a public health crisis. The training medical students receive on addiction varies widely by institution, and the AWARE week aims to offer some direction for medical students to find more information appropriate to their level of knowledge of addiction.