Thoughts on International Overdose Awareness Day 2023

Laura- Loss from Addiction

February 21, 2022

Nicole – Stigma Surrounding Drug Use

March 25, 2023

Nicole discusses how the stigma around drug use has an impact on how people feel able to grieve when those in their community are lost.

Kristal – Harm Reduction

April 23, 2023

Kristal speaks to the importance of harm reduction and how it can save lives. She discusses how accessing harm reduction leads to the creation of connections with community support. It allows community outreach members to connect with community members and get to know them, and to know to look for them if they don’t see them when they usually do.

Nicole – Working in Community Outreach

March 25, 2023

Nicole discusses her work in community outreach and how she has lived experience with addiction and living rough.

Kate – Getting support

March 11, 2023

Kate talks about how difficult it is to ask for support

Kristal – Drug Poisoning During Pandemic Stigma

April 23, 2023

Kristal discusses how the pandemic has created additional stigma surrounding those who use drugs. She dissuses how it seems like some losses are treated as more deserving of being mourned than others. Many people have had to grieve privately instead of publically within a community. She touches on the state of the public health system during the pandemic.

Christian – My process in grieving

April 23, 2023

Christian explains his grieving process and how it’s important to let people in, the power of community, and having a team that makes him feel loved and cared for

Kristal – Story of Lived Experience

April 23, 2023

Kristal discusses experiencing homelessness at multiple stages of her life and how that informs her work as a peer support worker. It gives her an understanding of the nuance that surrounds the community. She uses this experience to support people who are experiencing grief related to death from drug poisoning.

Joyce -The pandemics impact on drug poisonings

April 23, 2023

Joyce talks about drug poisonings during the pandemic

Kristal – Professional Experience and Work

April 23, 2023

Kristal discusses being a peer support woker, working on a one on one level with community members to help them with their goals related to substance abuse. She supports those in the community dealing with loss and grief. She speaks to everyone’s experience with loss and grief being very individual.

Nicole – Pandemic Leads to Increase in Drug Poisoning

March 25, 2023

Nicole discusses the increase in drug poisonings during the pandemic due to a number of factors.