Regional Center Hosted Events
The Great Lakes ROTA-RC offers a virtual learning community featuring opioid & other substance use, as well as mental health, treatment, and recovery education events for professionals, para-professionals, volunteers, and students in a variety of fields supporting the Great Lakes community. These virtual learning opportunities will be hosted by Great Lakes ROTA-RC’s Cooperative Extension partners in Region 5, and feature a range of experienced professionals.
Widening the aperture: the Swiss Cheese Model for opioid policy
This session introduces a comprehensive framework for addressing the opioid crisis through the lens of the Swiss Cheese Model. Drawing parallels from safety system’s theory, Jonathan Stoltman will explain how this approach recognizes that no single intervention is perfect—each has “holes” like Swiss cheese. However, when multiple strategies are layered together (e.g., prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery), we can create a more effective and resilient policy response. Healthcare professionals and policymakers will gain valuable insights into how this new policy model can address the full spectrum of opioid-related challenges.
Learning Objectives:
- Participants will analyze common policy gaps or “holes” within each domain that can compromise the effectiveness of opioid response efforts.
- Participants will define the Swiss Cheese Model and explain its application to complex public health challenges, particularly opioid policy.
- Participants will identify the four key domains of comprehensive opioid policy (prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery) and explain how they interconnect.
Presenter: Dr. Jonathan Stoltman
Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2025
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM CST/ 12:00 – 1:15 PM EST
Location: online webinar
Please contact Amanda Coorough (amanda.coorough@wisc.edu) with any questions
Co-Occurring Substance Use Disorders and PTSD Webinar
Substance use disorder (SUD) is often comorbid with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this lecture, we will discuss why these two disorders often co-occur and how those who have both differ from those who have either SUD or PTSD in terms of their physical and mental health and treatment outcomes. We will review research on how to effectively treat those who have both SUD and PTSD. The majority of this part of the lecture will be on clinical strategies to use when treating clients who have SUD and PTSD, including treatment planning, engagement strategies, and monitoring outcomes. Free web-based consumer-oriented and clinician resources for treating PTSD and PTSD co-occurring with SUD developed by the National Center for PTSD will be shared. This lecture is intended for clinicians who treat SUD who want to learn more about how PTSD interacts with SUD and best practices for treating patients with both.
Presenter: Dr. Sonya Norman
Date: Tuesday, July 1, 2025
Time: 1:00 – 2:15 PM CST/ 2:00 – 3:15 PM EST
Location: online webinar
Please contact Amanda Coorough (amanda.coorough@wisc.edu) with any questions
About the Presenter
JONATHAN STOLTMAN, PhD is Director of the Opioid Policy Institute, a research think tank that uses multi-pronged approaches to better understand gaps in treatment and recovery services and co-Director of Reporting on Addiction, an effort to improve the accuracy and empathy of news coverage about addiction. In 2019, he completed his PhD in Lifespan Developmental Psychology from West Virginia University and has worked as a researcher focusing on opioid addiction treatment and recovery since 2013. During this time, Jonathan’s academic work has appeared in leading journals, conferences, and media outlets.
SONYA NORMAN, PhD, is the director of the PTSD Consultation Program for the National Center for PTSD and a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. She is a clinical psychologist and a researcher in the treatment of PTSD and addictions, and novel treatments to address trauma-related guilt, shame, and moral injury. Dr. Norman previously directed a PTSD treatment program for Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has over 230 publications related to PTSD and associated problems and has had grants funded by the U.S. Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Defense (DoD), and National Institute of Health. She serves as an elected board member for the International Society of Traumatic Stress. She received her PhD from Stanford University.
