David Selden, a clinical social worker and therapist, has been involved with the management and provision of behavioral health services for over 35 years as a clinician, administrator, executive level manager and consultant.

 

He is the Director of Leahy Health System’s Cape Ann Adult Behavioral Learning Center in Salem and teaches part-time at Salem State University in the Psychology Department.

 

He also has a private practice with a specialty in working with teens, adults and their families who are experiencing difficulties from substance use and related mood disorders. He holds both ACSW and LICSW degrees and has lived on the North Shore for over 30 years.

 

In other words, he is no stranger to mental health and addiction issues on the North Shore. And Selden is worried.

 

“50-60% of our clients have substance use and addictive issues. We are primarily a mental health and not a specialty substance use treatment facility. This is typical for most mental health facilities, and why it is so important the staff are cross-trained in both the mental health and addiction treatments,” he said.

 

Although more and more clients with substance abuse and addiction disorders seek help initially from psychotherapists, local graduate schools do not include this topic in their curricula, he explained.

 

“Local programs are graduating new clinicians who become therapists, case managers, program directors and supervisors with no education or experience in this specialty. This is resulting in misdiagnoses, inadequate treatment and programs unprepared to provide necessary services,” the Marblehead resident said.

 

To rectify this deficiency, he has been working with administrators at Salem State University to develop training programs and curricula that may lead toward a specialty graduate program in the area of substance abuse and addiction. That long-range project has the support of local agency executives, who see a major need for this type of workforce training.

 

In the meantime, however, he is focused on the more immediate need to fill the gaping hole in practicing clinicians’ and graduate students’ training. To that end, he has spearheaded and organized a two-day symposium titled, “Substance Use and Addictive Disorders: Energizing the Community to Fight Back.”

 

The intensive and highly interactive conference will integrate elements of best practice treatment models, case studies and virtual team practice sessions. The two-day workshop runs Friday, June 16 and Saturday, June 17 from 8:30 am – 4:30 pm with 12 CEUs available for professionals who attend both days.

 

Selden worked with Dr. Carol Bonner, Associate Dean of SSU School of Social Work and Dr. Jeanne Corcoran, Interim Dean of the College and Health and Human Services. The symposium is supported by the School of Social Work and will take place at SSU’s Ellison Campus Center.

 

Between 2000 and 2016, opioid-related deaths have dramatically increased in Massachusetts, according to The Official Website of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. For example, total statewide deaths increased by more than five-fold, from 379 to 2,069.

 

Essex county increased from 51 to 281 deaths; Salem from 5 to 19 deaths; Gloucester from 2 to 9 deaths; Swampscott from 0 to 4 deaths; and Marblehead from 3 to 4 deaths. (For more information, visit

mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dph/stop-addiction/current-statistics.html.)

 

Selden thinks the symposium is both well timed and relevant.

 

Allison Bauer, who holds degrees in law and social work and is the Director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, will open the Friday, June 16 with a keynote address.

 

The rest of the day is devoted to topics in two areas: basic clinical (“What is Addiction?”; “Assessment and Diagnosis”; “Stages of Change/Motivational Enhancement Therapy”) and supervision/management (“State of the Treatment System”; “Self-Help 101”; “Alternative Programming”).

 

Day Two deals with treatment, post-recovery and relapse issues. Participants will spend the afternoon in virtual treatment teams that will be assigned case studies for practice in assessment and treatment planning.

 

Selden has assembled a stellar panel with a variety of degrees and professions, from business executives to educators to nurses and treatment program specialists. He has promoted the symposium through e-mail, social media and word of mouth via various professional networks.

 

Colleague feedback has been “overwhelmingly positive. Everyone I speak to agrees this is a much-needed program. The faculty all readily stepped up to volunteer their time for the symposium,” he said.

 

With the opioid addiction crisis and its human toll frequently at the forefront of local, state and national news, Selden stresses that the symposium is neither limited to nor geared exclusively for professionals in addiction treatment or related fields.

 

“The audience is anyone interested in working with people with substance use and addictive disorders,” he said, including those whose friends or loved ones may be so afflicted.

 

To register, go to substanceabuse17.eventbrite.com.