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Date: 9/6/2022
NORTHAMPTON – The city of Northampton recognized International Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31 with an Overdose Awareness and Prevention Vigil in Pulaski Park.
The vigil featured critical harm reduction resources and Hampshire County organizations who continue to fight the stigma around overdoses and drug addiction.
“Every year we hold vigils to honor the people we’ve lost to the struggle but then try to educate and engage the community to stop those struggles from continuing to happen,” said KB McConnell, the founder and consultant of Nothing But Kindness, a nonprofit that links people struggling with stigmatized situations to community resources for help. “Fatal overdose is preventable…there are evidence-based studies; there are safe consumption sites around the world.”
The event in Pulaski Park featured local harm reduction and recovery resources, testing, syringe access programs, peer groups and Narcan training and access. Among the tables participating were representatives from Hampshire Hope, Northampton Recovery Center, Tapestry Health, Nothing But Kindness and many more.
During the speaking portion of the event, Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra officially recognized Aug. 31 as Overdose Awareness Day with a proclamation. “I am very grateful for our dedicated Department of Health and Human Services…as well as the work done in Hampshire County around prevention, eradicating stigma and supporting people where they are,” Sciarra said.
Others who have lost loved ones to overdoses spoke during the event to remember their lives and shine a light on the harrowing aspects of substance abuse. Among the speakers was Peter Babineau, a representative from Learn to Cope, a nonprofit that offers education, peer support and resources for parents and family members coping with a loved one addicted to drugs.
According to Babineau, who is a person in recovery himself, there were 107,622 fatal overdoses in the United States from December 2020 to December 2021 caused by cocaine, natural and semi-synthetic prescription medication and synthetic opioids, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In Massachusetts alone, there were a little over 2,200 deaths from that same time period.
“According to this report, the 12-month period from December of 2020 to December of 2021 was, for people affected by substance use, the deadliest period of time ever recorded in history,” said Babineau. “As if this number isn’t devastating enough as reported, we know that it’s flawed and falls short of reality.”
According to Babineau, the CDC states that this number is deficient due to underreporting. The number does not include those who have died from alcohol poisoning, people who have starved to death, those lost to violent crime, to accidental deaths, suicides, systemic racism, as well as those who contracted infections and could not find adequate health care.
“‘107,622’ is not just a number,” said Babineau. “It is perhaps a well-intended but still anemic attempt to represent lost lives, tears dried, hearts broken due to overdose and mental health epidemics here in our United States.”
McConnell told Reminder Publishing that he has lost eight or nine people to a fatal overdose in the Hampshire County community in just the last year. “Those don’t need to happen,” said McConnell. “There are evidence-based studies that have been done on social, emotional, criminal, psychological and economic levels…those methodologies have a stronger community versus stigmatizing and shaming.”
For McConnell, education and outreach are two of the most important tools for curbing the stigma. Specifically, McConnell described Narcan training as a crucial asset for the mainstream community. “If everyone had it, you could put enough time potentially to stop someone from fatally overdosing before other help arrives,” McConnell said. “But there is some stigma to it still, where people don’t want [Narcan] on their medical list.”
McConnell said that he is coming up on seven years of opiate abstinence. When he was first struggling with this addiction, McConnell said he was afraid to tell anyone at that time due to shame. “I was harder on myself than anybody could possibly be,” said McConnell. “Because of the conversations I heard around me…I never shared my stuff. But that’s how people die.”
To curb the stigma, McConnell began sharing his story and started Nothing But Kindness to offer resources for people who struggled with the same path as him. “I used to tour as Arlo Guthrie’s drummer, and then I worked for Homeland Security in a second career, and then I ended up homeless and addicted to opiates,” said McConnell. “Psychologically, that was such a kick in the soul that I didn’t know who to talk too. And I want to make it so other don’t have to do that.”
A lot of what McConnell does is street outreach and meeting people where they are literally and figuratively. “I give them an option to share [their story],” said McConnell. “If they want too, cool, if they want me to shut my mouth, I’ll give people space if they need it.”
Connecting people with resources is equally important for McConnell, as well, with a lot of the work involving mutual aid. According to McConnell, Nothing But Kindness was instrumental in helping the Manna Community Center get up and running during the heat of the coronavirus pandemic, which ended up being the seeds for a permanent infrastructure change in Northampton. “It’s just me doing this with other community members,” said McConnell. “It’s whoever I can get [for resources] on that particular day.”
If people need resources or help with harm reduction, McConnell said they can reach out to the Nothing But Kindness Facebook or Instagram pages to learn more: https://www.facebook.com/nothingbutkindnessnoho. People can also visit the International Overdose Awareness Day website for more resources: https://www.overdoseday.com/.