Culpeper Overdose Awareness

recovery

Care Talk: Multiple Pathways to Recovery

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Come out Friday March 20th at 6pm for Care Talks and be encouraged! 
No one method of recovery works for everyone, and we can learn so much by hearing how others have been able to recover.   Care (Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Empowerment) Talks are typically held monthly with a different topic each month.

This month, special Guest Speaker PerCilla Zeno, Author of ‘I AM Healing’: The 7 Secrets to Wellness and Self-Care will be sharing as well as 7 others who are in recovery.
Details:
Friday March 20th 6-8pm
McShin Foundation 2300 Dumbarton Rd. Henrico
Find more information here: https://caretalks.net/events 
or see the Facebook event page

My friend Betty and myself both traveled to Richmond to give a Care Talk on the topic of grief and we left empowered and refreshed by the speakers.
See our Care Talks here: https://caretalks.net/coping-with-the-grief

Grab a friend and don’t miss it!

Opioid Ripples: Part 3

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Tactics evolve in battle against opioid abuse

Capt Ray Akors and Sheriff Bob Mosier

Read more of journalist Randy Rieland’s research into the local response and how it is helping break the cycle . . .

Law enforcement agencies in the region are taking on a larger role in teaching their communities about a crisis that few saw coming, and with a focus more nuanced than it would have been 10 years ago.

“We try to teach it’s a brain chemistry issue,” Fauquier sheriff’s Capt. Ray Acors said. “It’s not that someone’s a bad person. Their bad behavior comes out of their addiction. It’s a Jekyll and Hyde drug.”

Chief Chris Jenkins of Culpeper thinks addiction prevention doesn’t get the attention it merits. He has both professional and deeply personal reasons for feeling that way. Five years ago, his 26-year-old son, Jordan, who had become addicted to prescription medications, committed suicide. “I actually think prevention is as important as law enforcement now,” he said. “And it’s the part people kinda forget about.”

Mr. Jenkins said a complicating factor is that it’s usually up to local communities to develop their own prevention programs.

“Look, we already have our hands full for the next 10 to 15 years dealing with what’s happened. If we don’t focus on addiction prevention now, we’re going to get another whole segment of our community dealing with it.”
Read the FULL ARTICLE at FAUQUIER NOW or download a PDF at the Piedmont Journalism Foundation

Voices of Addiction & Recovery Symposium

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I was grateful to participate in the Voices of Addiction & Recovery Symposium. Co-hosted by the Windmore Foundation for the Arts, it’s goal was to share the challenges that someone with addiction faces and the reality that there is hope – recovery is possible.

Ralisha Banks reads a poem she wrote titled “She is Me”. It’s raw honesty impacted listeners.

The Symposium included a panel discussion with Culpeper Police Captain Tim Chilton, local Medication Assisted Treatment provider Dr. DeRoo, Prevention Specialist Alan Rasmussen with the Rappahannock Rapidan Community Services, and myself, representing Culpeper Overdose Awareness and families who’ve lost a loved one to addiction.

Rebecca Fleming reads the poem “My-Master” at the Voices of Addiction and Recovery Symposium

 

 

 

Interspersed among panel discussions were readings of poetry that convey the struggle and depth of pain addiction brings. Community member Ralisha Banks read a poem she authored, “She Is Me,” sharing her experience of growing up in a home with abuse and drug addiction, a pattern that showed up in her own adult life.  Her words were the most powerful of the night.

A display of art made by folks in recovery or still struggling with drug abuse was on display, and community resources were on hand for everyone to take.

Read the full story by Allison Brophy Champion at The Culpeper Star Exponent.

*All photos by Allison Brophy Champion