Gary Pratt is the founder of Smash The Stigma 413.
“The original purpose is just to initiate the conversation surrounding substance use and substance use disorder," he told WAMC. "The stigma is perhaps the hardest thing that anybody has to encounter and overcome when it comes to substance use treatment. There's a lot of shame attached to substance use, and it hinders people moving forward and recovery. So just having that initial conversation with people, raising awareness about the issue, and lowering the temperature where people feel more comfortable and confident to initiate that conversation without having to feel judged or shamed.”
Pratt has firsthand knowledge of how dangerous not talking about substance use issues can be.
“It leads a lot to isolation, and, quite frankly, fear," said Pratt. "When you're in active addiction, there's a lot of fear. And there's a lot of fear in how are you going to manage your life in recovery once you try to enter it. For myself, personally, the vast majority of my substance use occurred in Great Barrington. And when I got into recovery, I had to leave the area in order to find the recovery in the community that I desperately needed. In starting Smash the Stigma 413, I just want to get people together, and, again, have that conversation where people can start to connect with each other and really build those relationships that help to move their personal recovery and the recovery community forward.”
To acknowledge September as National Recovery Month, Smash The Stigma 413 is inviting community members to an event at Town Hall Park in Great Barrington starting at noon Saturday.
“We're going to have food trucks, we're going to have family activities, we're going to have music, we're going to do a march through Great Barrington, standout with some signs, and then we'll have some speakers," said Pratt. "And it's just a gathering point where, again, people can make connections, they can network, they can see the available resources.”
The event comes in the shadow of yet another year of fatal overdose rates rising in the region.
“Since 2010, in Berkshire County, we've lost 374 people, and that only includes till 2021. In 2020 to 2021, we lost 173 people. So that's in the two-year span- And we don't even have 2022 numbers yet. I'm fearful that those are going to be even higher, but this is a public health emergency that doesn't get the attention that it deserves. It doesn't get the treatment options that it deserves. And, you know, quite frankly, people keep dying. It's my opinion, too, [that] every single overdose death is preventable with the right services in place.”
Andy Ottoson of the Berkshire Overdose Addiction Prevention Collaborative told WAMC in August that misconceptions about the availability of resources might be part of the continued rise in overdose deaths.
"If you want to get started on buprenorphine or methadone today, or any other sort of treatment, you have multiple providers, multiple options," he said. "They'll see you right now, they'll get you started today.”
Pratt, also the director of Rural Recovery and the South County Recovery Center in Great Barrington, stresses that Smash The Stigma is open to everyone.
“The little tagline is, you know somebody too," he told WAMC. "That's the thing about substance use disorder: It doesn't discriminate, it affects everybody. It affects the rich, it affects the poor, it touches every single demographic. Therefore, we invite everybody in the community to come and get involved. That's how we come together, that's how we make those connections, and that's how we move this work forward. And we ultimately save lives.”
The 2022 Smash The Stigma Recovery Month gathering kicks off at noon Saturday at Town Hall Park in Great Barrington.
