David is a Research Scientist at New York University’s School of Global Public Health. He is also someone with living experience of methadone treatment. In this dramatized account David describes the strains of criminalized drug use and his own reasons for getting on methadone, and in the interview that follows Frank talks about how methadone seeking is often motivated by the avoidance of criminalization rather than the pursuit of recovery.
A list of David's other work can be found at:
https://nyu.academia.edu/DFrank/CurriculumVitae
Abby Coulter, is a strong advocate for methadone reform. In 2011, she founded MAT Support & Awareness (MATSA), an organization by and for people on methadone and buprenorphine. Abby has spent over two decades fighting for the rights of people either trying to access or who are on methadone throughout the United States and internationally. She is a co-author of “The methadone manifesto: treatment experiences and policy recommendations by methadone patient activists,” a 2022 editorial published in the American Journal of Public Health, as well as a commentary published in the International Journal of Drug Policy in 2021 on community driven research led by people who use drugs. She was a planning committee member and a speaker for the Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s 2022 two-day virtual event, “Methadone Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder: Examining Federal Regulations and Laws - A Workshop” co-sponsored by the Office for National Drug Control Policy. Her own lived experience as a pregnant person using drugs and a pregnant and parenting person on methadone is what led her to life as a methadone advocate.
More information about Abby’s work can be found at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbycoultermmtsa
National Survivors Union is proud to announce the culmination of months of event planning through our participation in the National Coalition to Liberate Methadone---save the dates (9/21 and 9/22/23) for our conference, "Liberating Methadone: Building a Roadmap and a Community for Change," at the Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South in New York City or online—the conference is hybrid. We thank our funders and sponsors: Vital Strategies, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at NYU Langone, and Pew Charitable Trusts, as well as our host, the NYU Langone Health Center. Abstract submissions for our poster session, travel award applications, and an early registration process privileging directly impacted people are now OPEN. Hear from visionaries on this topic such as Hiawatha Collins, Dr. David Frank, Dr. Ayana Jordan, Dr. Paul Joudrey, and many more. The conference will include panel presentations, skill-building workshops, working group break-out sessions, and more! With continuously rising overdose deaths and the recent changes in methadone treatment policies instigated by COVID-19, this is a historic time to leverage federal attention to this topic to discuss the possibility of expanding U.S. methadone availability beyond the current opioid treatment program (OTP) clinic system. This conference will bring together people dedicated to expanding equitable access to opioid use disorder treatment to discuss a roadmap for access to methadone in general healthcare settings. By bringing together thought leaders, advocates, experts, and people with lived experience, concrete policy and practice recommendations can emerge to expand life-saving care during an ongoing emergency.
Early registration for people with lived/living experience of methadone treatment: https://liberatemethadone.eventbrite.com
Abstract submissions for our poster session: https://openredcap.nyumc.org/apps/redcap/surveys/?s=H8P3TP7CDTJTHRJY
Travel award application link : https://openredcap.nyumc.org/apps/redcap/surveys/?s=WJXR7JEEE73LCN4P