Dr. Khary Rigg has been invited by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to serve on an expert advisory committee. This committee is tasked with completing the development of the Opioid Misuse Community Assessment Tool, which provides county-level drug overdose mortality data, with overlays of socio-demographic and economic variables. Over the next several months, Dr. Rigg and other committee members will be assisting ONDCP by developing a "Rural Prosperity Index." The goal of this index is to identify a set of characteristics associated with lower or higher overdose mortality rates that will help local decision makers plan and allocate resources. The panel is composed of a small group of national experts from the fields of addiction, mental health, public health, drug prevention, rural development, and community resilience. The first advisory meeting will be held July 3rd at the ONDCP headquarters in Washington DC.

A small group of Masters level students in Speech Language Pathology (SLP) spent 5 days in June applying their treatment skills in a functional setting. The four, John Demid, Kelsey Folsom, Elizabeth Wood and Anna Marie Mainiero, joined the Aphasia Recovery Connection (ARC) Aphasia Cruise to Bermuda as part of USF's Study Abroad program. The student clinicians, along with Clinical Instructor, Cheryl A. Paul, travelled with 90 people aboard the Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas. The students were aboard to facilitate communication for the 30 members of the group who have aphasia. Aphasia is a neurogenic language disorder that can impair expressive communication (such as talking or writing) and/or receptive communication (such as understanding what they read or what people say). The students prepared activities to conduct on board the ship and also facilitated communication between those with aphasia and others on the ship, including the ship's crew.

MHLP will be hosting its 2019 Continuing Education Forensic Training Series for Mental Health Professionals in early August. Instruction in forensic evaluation of adults and juveniles involved in the legal system is complemented with focused training on assessing and managing patients' risk for violence in acute long-term care settings. The Forensic Evaluation and Juvenile Justice training will take place from August 12 - 13, 2019. The Florida Adult Forensic Examiner Training will be held from August 15 - 17, 2019. Both training sessions will be held in the USF Gibbons Alumni Center- Traditions Hall. For more information, visit the website(s) above or email CBCSMarketing@usf.edu

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