As the politicians continue to deliberate the best way to handle the current opioid abuse and addiction epidemic, one Colorado company is taking action.
The Executive Coaching University (ECU) based in Golden, Colorado, has been on the leading edge of the Mindfulness Movement since 2004. As the opioid epidemic has seen explosive growth throughout the US, the ECU realized there was a gap in the proposed solutions to combat this issue, and a potential alternative.
Currently, the primary plan for solving this crisis does not consider alternatives, only focusing on the challenges directly related to the use of opioids for pain management. The ECU believes the solution may be found by pursuing Mindfulness as an alternative path altogether.
The opioid epidemic claimed 62,500 lives in drug overdoses in 2016 and has killed more than 500,000 people since 2000, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. government has declared the epidemic a public health emergency and has vowed to fix the crisis and has allocated $17 billion to address this crisis.
The opioid crisis has cost the US $1 trillion since 2001 — and according to health research firm Altarum, that could grow another $500 billion by 2020. Most of those costs come from lost wages, productivity, and tax revenue. Health care costs alone related to this issue topped $217.5 billion during the period between 2001 and 2017.
The ECU is in discussions with congressional leadership to explore its role in helping address this ongoing challenge.
Mindfulness meditation has been shown in clinical trials to reduce chronic pain by 57 percent. The primary underlying concept is that mindfulness practices can turn down the ‘volume’ control on pain.
Understanding this, and leveraging their past experiences using mindfulness principles and practices with clients, the ECU developed a unique and powerful 30-day program designed to address this issue. Program highlights include teaching participants:
1) Introductory mindfulness principles and practices
2) How to apply these principles and practices in managing their pain
3) Skills and pain management tactics to improve overall happiness, levels of engagement at work, and reducing the amount of stress they maintain in their daily lives.
The program is currently in a pilot phase being delivered by the ECU in partnership with the Colorado Integrated Care Network, a leading local physical care health provider. The team is expecting to complete the pilot this spring, and pending positive results, release the program for use across the nation.
For more information, please contact the Executive Coaching University: 800.526.6038 or support@executivecoachinguniversity.com
