Culpeper Overdose Awareness

grief

Grief Support for Siblings

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There aren’t many grief resources for sibling who’ve lost a brother or sister to substance use, most resources are for the parents. But there are a few . . .

Virtual Sibling Grief Meetings

GRAPLErva is a grief support group for families who’ve lost a loved one to addiction.  They have both parents and siblings who attend.  They are currently holding grief group meetings every Tuesday and Friday night at 6:30pm.  For the Zoom meeting ID and password text/call 804-229-5024, or email GrapleRVA@gmail.com

Online Support Groups

There is a private Facebook support group for siblings who’ve lost a brother or sister to substance use called Team Sharing – SIBLINGS. They have hundreds of members from all over the country.

Another private Facebook group specifically for a substance use loss: Siblings Strong

Facebook page (not private group) for any type of sibling loss: Sibling Loss Awareness

Most hospice offices have grief support groups for children who have lost a loved one. These are free and open to members of the community.

Visit What’s Your Grief, they have a great support community for siblings.

Article: States have so many foster children they’re putting them in detention centers and hotels

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Though he’s never been convicted of a crime, Geard Mitchell spent part of his childhood in a juvenile detention center, at times sleeping on cement floors under harsh fluorescent lights left on through the night during lockdowns.

He attended high school by clicking through online courses and had “no one to talk to but the walls” because of restrictions on phone calls. He attended group therapy with teens accused of rape, when what he really needed was grief therapy to process his mother’s death.

Daily life became so torturous that Geard scratched up his face to look like a methamphetamine addict, hoping that “they would transfer me to somewhere more normal, like rehab.”

Geard’s only crime was being a foster child in an era when a surging number of biological parents are falling into the grips of drug addiction and child welfare systems are struggling with a shortage of foster parents.

Read the Full WASHINGTON POST Article Here

Opioid Ripples: Part 4

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Stigma still stymies some efforts
in opioid battle

Not even death ends the ripple effects of stigma,
In some ways – it’s even intensified.

The last installation in this 4 part series focuses on stigma and how it affects those in recovery and their families.
I was thankful to be a part of it, and help spread awareness that this stigma still continues for family members even after an overdose death has occurred.  

Read the article at Fauquier Now or read PDFs of the entire series from the
Piedmont Journalism Foundation

 

Opioid Ripples: Part 2

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Opioid addiction recovery a slow and painful journey

Journalist Randy Rieland highlights just how challenging overcoming an addiction can be.

Caroline Folker with her beautiful daughter Katherine

Brian and Caroline Folker had always thought Fauquier County was a safe place to raise their two daughters. After much research, they had picked it as the place to live after his transfer from London to a job in Vienna.

But, it seemed like unnecessary cruelty to have Kathrine die not long after a stint in an addiction recovery center, after being buoyed by so much relief and hope. Through their terrible ordeal, the couple learned one of the awful realities of addiction. Most addicts relapse. Multiple times. Even after they receive treatment.

Kathrine had been in the Edgehill Recovery Retreat in Winchester for only two weeks when she left. She told her parents she was afraid she would lose her job if she stayed any longer. She also told them she would be fine.

“It turned out to be a perfect storm,” Ms. Folker said. “My anxiety-ridden, naïve, follower of a daughter, very easily influenced and living in a time and place when this epidemic hit. She might as well have had a bull’s-eye on her back.”

Read the FULL ARTICLE at FAUQUIER NOW or download a PDF at the Piedmont Journalism Foundation

Opioid Ripples: Part 1

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Piedmont’s opioid crisis ‘has touched everyone’

This is the first of a four part series by Journalist Randy Rieland, produced jointly by two independent, nonprofit civic news organizations, the Piedmont Journalism Foundation and Foothills Forum. 

The opioid crisis has not just claimed more than 700 lives in Virginia’s Piedmont region during the past decade, but has also shattered families, taxed law enforcement and social services, stressed first responders and health care professionals and shredded the fabric of communities that never saw it coming.

And, for the generation of children being born to addicts, or into families with opioid abuse, some true ramifications may not be known for years.

Read the FULL ARTICLE at FAUQUIER NOW or download a PDF at the Piedmont Journalism Foundation

Culpeper Overdose Awareness Participates in Awareness Campaign

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New police video raises awareness
of area drug crisis

A new hard-hitting short video by the Culpeper Police Department, viewer discretion advised, emphasizes the life-and-death nature of the ongoing drug crisis with its actual body cam footage of a man overdosed on a bathroom floor. Culpeper Police Captain Timothy Chilton is featured next, commenting on the “staggering” level of opioid overdoses in the last few years.

“The heroin crisis has certainly claimed many lives in our community and has forever changed many families,” states Police Chief Chris Jenkins. “The Culpeper Police Department is committed in our efforts to combat this deadly opiate public health crisis. We will continue to provide prevention, education and enforcement and use all available resources at our disposal to fight against this epidemic.” [Read more…] about Culpeper Overdose Awareness Participates in Awareness Campaign

Death Certificates Don’t Lie

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Overall fatal drug overdoses decline,
but cocaine and methamphetamine
deaths climb

DEATH CERTIFICATES DON’T LIE

Joseph Fleming’s death certificate

When people hear that my son died of cocaine/fentanyl poisoning, many are hesitant to believe it.
“Are you sure?”
“That doesn’t make sense, one is a
stimulant and the other is a depressant”
“That must not be right.”
I’ve heard it all.

I was not there when Joe died, and I am no doctor, but I know this . . .
Joe’s toxicology results tell a story.
They tell a story of his last hours.
A story I have no other way of knowing because no one is talking – not to me at least.
This is all I have – the pure medical science of it.
A beautiful life condensed to a sheet of paper full of nonsensical numbers, sent to me in the mail by strangers who never even touched his body.

Did you know they don’t even bother doing autopsies on these deaths anymore?  Apparently,
the cost is too great – the backlog too enormous – the results assumably known.

Oh, that not one more will die Lord.
That not one more family with know these awful truths.
That is my prayer.  But I know in this fallen world – I ask the impossible.
So, I press on with awareness.  With speaking out at every opportunity.  Here is another awareness article from the Roanoke Times that I was happy to contribute to.
In memory of Joe,
but really . . .
for those still alive.

At first, Dee Fleming assumed her son died of a heroin overdose since that’s the opioid that’s been dominating the public’s attention. When she received the death certificate, she was surprised to learn that her son had died from a combination of cocaine and fentanyl, an opiate painkiller 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.

After years of relatively stable numbers of cocaine overdoses in Virginia, in 2016, deaths increased 40 percent over the year before. In 2016 and 2017, fentanyl was implicated in more than 54 percent of cocaine deaths.

Read the full article by Amy Friedenberger at The Roanoke Times