On May 18-19, 2018, a number of TMC faculty, along with health care professionals and experts, clergy and laity from various religious denominations and other groups gathered together in Blountville, TN to discuss the Nation’s opioid crisis and how the Church can respond. The goal of the Holy Friendship Summit is to create resources for pastors and lay church members to use in helping overcome the opioid crisis.
“It struck me for years that the pain that people bring to doctors is often responded to by doctors with tools we have in our toolbox, which is narcotics,” said Dr. Farr Curlin, TMC Co-Director and a member of the summit steering committee. “That is not restoring people to health. They aren’t getting better as a result.”