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Date: 8/24/2022
WESTFIELD – The Westfield Health Department is sponsoring a vigil later this month to promote overdose awareness in the community and reflect on those who have lost their lives to drug addiction.
The International Overdose Awareness Vigil is slated for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 31, on the Park Square Green. This year’s vigil is being organized by Health Department Office Manager Kim Sienkiewicz, who said that more than a dozen organizations involved in fighting or managing substance abuse will be present at the vigil to provide resources and pamphlets aimed at combating addiction.
Those organizations include Tapestry Health, the Southern Hilltown Domestic Violence Task Force, Westfield Against Addiction, and the Valor Recovery Center, among others.
Westfield, like many communities in Massachusetts, has a longstanding problem with opioid addiction. That issue was only worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, which led to a sharp increase nationally in reported mental health concerns and substance abuse. In Westfield in 2021, Sienkiewicz said that there had been 73 reported opioid overdoses, many of which were fatal.
“Residents can come to the Park Square Green to remember loved ones we have lost to substance abuse, and those who suffer from addiction who are still with us,” said Sienkiewicz.
Mayor Michael McCabe and state Sen. John Velis will speak at the vigil, as well as representatives of some of the organizations that will be present, like Tapestry Health. Velis spoke at the 2021 vigil, where he said a stigma still surrounds substance abuse which can act as a barrier to recovery.
“A doctor told me that a lot of people recover, if we can just keep them alive,” said Velis at last year’s vigil. “The well-being of our citizens is far and away the most important thing we do.”
Sienkiewicz said that family members of victims of fatal overdoses will be speaking as well and telling the story of what happened to them and their families.
Some law enforcement officials think the years of education and rehabilitation may have helped even in spite of COVID-19. In all of 2021 there were 73 overdoses in Westfield. So far in 2022, there have been 29 more than halfway through the year.
Lt. Eric Hall, the head of the Community Service Unit in the Westfield Police, said that many things can influence whether overdose rates rise or fall, but that harm reduction techniques and education could contribute to the lower rate this year.
“We encourage many harm reduction techniques if one has a substance abuse disorder, like not using opiates alone and having Narcan on hand,” said Hall.