Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic

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.

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

Kristal – Lack of Memorials During Pandemic

April 23, 2023

Kristal talks about how memorials can offer closure to people who are grieving, find a community, and share stories. With the absence of this during the pandemic, many people turned inward to grieve or isolated, which can create safety issues and have an impact on mental health. She speaks to how this leads to depression, physical pain, and it compounds upon itself.

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

Christian – Grieving spaces

April 23, 2023

Christian talks grieving spaces and people coming together when grieving

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

Kristal – Anger with Grief

April 23, 2023

Kristal discusses finding ways to channel her anger due to poor policy leading to deaths from drug poisoning and those individuals not having the support they needed. She discusses how human beings have the right to be flawed and should have the ability to grow, heal, and change.

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

Nicole – Using Art and Creativity to Express Grief

March 25, 2023

Nicole discusses the work she does to allow access to creative outlets such as art hives and gardening.

Art / Collective/Community Grief / Death By Overdose / Death of A Loved One / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic / I Am A Griever / I Am A Professional / I Am A Supporter / Video

Christian – Autonomy for the homeless

April 23, 2023

Christian discusses those who are unhoused and how they want a space that is theirs and how we need to take that seriously especially when it comes to grief

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

Thoughts on International Overdose Awareness Day 2023

August 30, 2023

We lead multifaceted lives, and the deaths of those we love who have died by drug poisoning contain multitudes. The death of a loved one can bring intense grief, shock, anger, shame, or guilt. People who use drugs, and those who love them that they leave behind, face stigma in North America’s dominant, settler culture.

Bereavement Professionals' Insights / Blog Post / Collective/Community Grief / Death By Overdose / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic

Kate – Miracle baby

March 11, 2023

Kate shares about her brothers daughter being born after he had died

Death By Overdose / Death of A Loved One / Death of a Sibling / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic / Video

Christian – Supporting people who may die

April 23, 2023

Christian talks about going from zero overdoses to 50 in a matter of months and how to help people who may die

Death and Grief During a Pandemic / Death By Overdose / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic / I Am A Professional / 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