Through a successful sign-up invite by Councilman Bradley Hoferkamp, the Hopatcong Municipal Alliance welcomed 65 attendees to the Seniors Are Wise Program at Pavinci restaurant on May 10. The HMA mission is to deter drug and alcohol abuse in the Hopatcong community and it has been doing this in fun and informative ways. Its school and public venue events are made possible through GCADA grant funds.
The HMA programs helped focus on two classes of Hopatcong Seniors this year– the Hopatcong High School Seniors with Project Graduation and Hopatcong Seniors of 60+ years with the Seniors Are Wise programs.
At the presentation, guest speaker Jacqueline Sheppard, a registered nurse, presented facts and statistics about the misuse of prescribed opiate pain killers among the senior population. To reinforce this information, a skit was performed by the Mental Health Players actors Cy Friedman, Robert Lowery and HMA member Joanne Flexser, key organizer of this event. Tracy Klingener, director of Self Help Advocacy and Education for The Mental Health Association of Morris & Essex Counties, helped to
facilitate audience interaction during the skit and conducted the final Q&A sessions.
The takeaway from this event was how harmful dependency can happen with careless abuse of opiate prescription pain killers.
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