Death By Overdose

Kate – Getting support

Kate talks about how difficult it is to ask for support

Krista – “Exercise to get it out”

Krista tells how she releases stress through kickboxing. Krista continues to grieve the death of her son from opioid overdose.

Nicole – Working in Community Outreach

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

Kristal – Poetry, Comedy, & Art for Grieving

Kristal discusses using poetry and other forms of creative expression as a distraction from her grief and to disassociate in a safe and productive way. She discusses grief being love with nowhere to go, so she puts it into art.

Christian – “Jeff’s Story”

Christian tells Jeff”s story… the good and his struggles.

Krista – “My wish”

Krista discusses why she thinks helping others is important. Krista continues to grieve the death of her son from opioid overdose.

Sarah K – Story

Sarah tells the story of her husbands death to a heroin overdose.

Kristal – Harm Reduction

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.

Christian – Grieving the whole person

Christian talks about how we choose remember people when there has been a loss to drug poisoning

When Death Feels like a Thief

In the heart of my grief, at my frailest, all I could see was what was no more. I grieved all that was stolen from me by death; love, security and even my very self. Had I known the value of having every pocket of who I was, picked bare by grief, I would not have fought so hard to hold onto it all.

Sarah K – Coping

Sarah discusses how she copes with this unbelievably painful loss

Christian – Language around those pushed to the margins

Christian talks about how people who are pushed to the margins are not discussed as part of our community and how we need to include them. As a community how do we care for our neighbours and how do we mourn the loss of our neighbours