What a day. What a day. What a day.

What a day. What a day. What a day.

The morning began early today. I got to the church by 9:30am with Patty, to get set up for our NARCAN Training.

HERO arrived right on time and offered tours of their Hidden in Plain Sight Trailer to our attendees from 11-12. The trailer is designed as a teenager’s bedroom and educates parents, guardians, grandparents, educators, alike, what some of the latest signs of teen drug use are. It’s easy to miss the signs, even when they’re Hidden in Plain Sight.

We trained 9 additional individuals on how to spot an opioid overdose and how to safely administer Narcan. One of these now informed and prepared individuals is involved in the operations of 8 sober living facilities. We sent him home with his kit, and 16 additional kits all containing 2 life-saving doses. One of my really important goals of today’s training, was to make sure folks really had a visual for how impacted our communities are currently. I included the dashboard I created in the photos. I spent 9 hours last week combing the Cook County Medical Examiners Office database to get the latest numbers. I created this visual to help our attendees grasp the impact of this on the families we engage with every single day. I focused on the last 5 months of death certificates issued, and isolated only those Opioid related. I went on to it break down by Age, Gender (only M and F is identified at this time) and Race. I even spliced the data by Residence City of descedant and included a table with all the neighboring towns and villages within a 10 mile radius of our office.

I can tell you I was very shocked by the most impacted age group according to these numbers. The prior trends always had 20-40 range topping the list. This is definitely signaling some things to me, that the highest rates is among 50-59 year olds.

We have been pairing our Share Your Heart Memorial with Narcan trainings. Most people are inspired to help through tragedy. Many, by losing someone to an overdose. Providing an place to honor and remember loved ones we’ve lost this way, is important to our organization.

Plug here for HERO’s, check them out if you’re interested in a Grief Support Group they hold monthly at Alive Church for anyone effected by substance abuse and loss.

If you or someone you know is suffering from addiction and need Narcan, contact us.

If you no longer want to be in active addiction and you’re ready to get treatment, we can help with that too; give us a call.

#BecauseEveryoneNeedsHelpSometimes

#NarcanSaves #narcantraining #almosthome

#SSK post coming tomorrow!

Sincerely,

Mel