Beaufort County medical professionals attend boot camp surrounding the stigma about substance use disorders

WASHINGTON, N.C. (WNCT) — Medical professionals from Beaufort County are getting training about the stigma surrounding substance use disorders.

The NC Star Network partnered with Agape Health Services for the workshop on Tuesday. The boot camp provided real world examples of biases in medical settings such as socioeconomic status, gender and race. The crowd shared ways to help everyone in Beaufort County and beyond.

“Everybody deserves health care, everybody deserves to be healthy and have access to affordable health care. The minute we start looking at a race or demographic or socioeconomic status or size of town that a person lives on, that’s when we start to lose as a people, as a community,” said Lester Howard, Peer Support Specialist at Agape Health Services.

“It is very clear that the community wants to speak, wants to have a voice, and that’s what’s coming out today. People are wanting to communicate the barriers and difficulties that they’re experiencing,” said Robyn Jordan, Associate Professor at UNC Chapel Hill.

The organizations plan to have a follow-up workshop as well as a town hall meeting sometime in October.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT.