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Substance Use Awareness & Prevention Workshop
Thursday October 24, 2019
3:30 – 5:30pm Workshop
5:30 – 6:00pm Networking (light refreshments served)
6:00 – 6:30pm Free NARCAN Training
Hilton Garden Inn
Ballroom C – Devens, MA
59 Andrews Pkwy, Devens, MA 01434
The workshop is focused on education, prevention, and support.Attendees will learn about substance use challenges facing our Military Veterans. Additional educational resources will be provided at the event. There will be time allotted for networking over light refreshments after the discussion ends.
There will also be a free NARCAN training provided for those interested.
Panelists including clinicians, family members, and Veterans in recovery will share their key insights and experiences in battling this epidemic.
Read on below to learn more about them!
About The Panel
Dr. Dingman is a licensed psychologist whose principle clinical interests are in contemporary child and family therapies applied to problems of trauma and attachment. He has worked in community mental health settings in both outpatient and inpatient venues, as well as private practice, and has extensive experience with clinical field training and supervision. Dr. Dingman’s academic interest areas are in military and veterans’ psychology, humanistic/experiential forms of psychotherapy, the history of psychology, and Buddhist psychology. He received his BA from Minnesota State University, his MA from San Diego State University, and his doctorate from Boston University. He has had faculty appointments at St. Michael’s College, Assumption College, Harvard Medical School, UMASS Medical School, and the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. Dr. Dingman is the director of the William James College Train Vets to Treat Vets program and Military and Veterans Psychology Concentration.
Dr. John Meigs, PsyD, LADC I is a licensed clinical psychologist and director of the the substance use addiction counseling concentration in the Counseling and Behavioral Health Department at William James College. He completed his internship at the White River Junction VA Medical Center in Vermont and a postdoctoral fellowship at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Meigs is also licensed alcohol and drug counselor (LADC I) in the state of Massachusetts and has been involved in the provision of substance use treatment since 2011.
Matthew Nault is a Certified Peer Specialist at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans’ Hospital. He is a Veteran of the United States Army who resides in Somerville Massachusetts. He has been an opiate addict since 1996 and has been clean and sober since December 13th, 2016. He feels fortunate to work with Veterans that have similar struggles and are attending a program that he came through himself just a few years ago.
Ms. Laurie Carpenter is a family member/advocate and candidate for MA in Couples and Family Counseling. She has a lifetime of experience as a child, cousin, aunt, and mother of family members who are struggling with, or have been lost to, the effects of substance use and other mental health disorders. Throughout her family’s journey through active addiction, treatment, relapse, recovery and loss, she has seen how stigma helps perpetuate the conditions where substance use disorder (SUD) thrives, and how individuals are more likely to achieve long term recovery from SUD when their family members receive the supports they need as well. To expand her role in providing this support to other families, Laurie recently left a long career in Finance to pursue a MA in Couples and Family Therapy at William James College, where she is expected to graduate in May 2020
Tara Rivera is a Treatment Advocate and Recovery Coach at Recovery Centers of America. She has been working in the field of addiction since 2016 which is when she obtained her MBA from Anna Maria College.
Most importantly she is a person in long term recovery herself who celebrated 22 years of continued sobriety in January 2019. She has been a strong advocate for those who struggle with addiction and has made it her life’s mission to help others find their pathway to recovery as well as educate our community in an attempt to combat the stigma of addiction.
Tara has participated in a multi-disciplinary team to develop and supervise a 2-week, intensive community internship for 2nd year medical students with UMass Medical Students as well as Fitchburg State University’s Nursing Students.
She has also developed and facilitated a First Responders Addiction Training and has trained over 200 first responders in the physiology of addiction, genetics, ACE study and the history of our current opioid epidemic.
She serves on the leadership team of the Joint Coalition on Health, is the Director of Facing Addiction in Fitchburg and Beyond and sits on the Board of Directors for Crossing Over Sober House, Restoration Recovery Center and Community Health Connections.
Dr. Gabriel Simon is the Chief of Emergency Medicine at Nashoba Valley Medical Center. He graduated from Yale School of Medicine in 2004. He completed a residency at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and has been in practice for more than 14 years.