Death By Overdose

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.

Collective/Community Grief / Death By Overdose / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic / I Am A Professional / Video

Sarah K – Be gentle

February 8, 2022

Sarah shares what what she has learned to help someone going through what she has been through

Death By Overdose / Grief and Trauma / Supporting Others / Video

Kristal – The Value of all Those Lost

April 23, 2023

Kristal emphasizes that the lives of those lost to drug poisoning had value, they were an opportunity that was lost, and that the community is missing so much in their absence.

Death By Overdose / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic / I Am A Professional / Video

What I know about grief

May 29, 2022

The following are some things I know to be true about grief for me, based on my lived experience. Some of them may resonate with you as well. Grief is unique to the people experiencing it in each moment, so please take whatever makes sense to you from this share and leave whatever doesn’t.

Blog Post / Collective/Community Grief / Death and Grief During a Pandemic / Death By Overdose / Death of A Loved One / Grief and Trauma / Suicide / Supporting Others

Krista – “It does get easier”

December 4, 2019

Krista talks about time and acceptance. Krista continues to grieve the death of her son from opioid overdose.

Death By Overdose / Death of a Child / Grief and Trauma / Video

Krista – “Mental illness and self medicating”

December 4, 2019

Krista talks about mental health and self medicating. Krista continues to grieve the death of her son from opioid overdose.

Death By Overdose / Death of a Child / Death of A Loved One / Grief and Trauma / Video

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.

Death By Overdose / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic / I Am A Professional / My Story Video / Video

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.

Collective/Community Grief / Death By Overdose / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic / I Am A Professional / Video

Krista – “Being uncomfortable”

December 4, 2019

Krista talks about taking risks. Krista continues to grieve the death of her son from opioid overdose.

Death By Overdose / Death of a Child / Death of A Loved One / Grief and Trauma / Video

When Death Feels like a Thief

August 24, 2022

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.

Blog Post / Death and Grief During a Pandemic / Death By Overdose / Death During Service / Death of A Loved One / Grief and Trauma / I Am A Griever / Living with Dying / Perinatal / Suicide

Krista – “The way I dealt with shame”

December 4, 2019

Krista talks about confronting shame head on. Krista continues to grieve the death of her son from opioid overdose.

Death By Overdose / Death of a Child / Grief and Trauma / Video