“We just had somebody that overdosed two weeks ago, and some of the guys in our supportive housing and things like that, and in our program, our staff - it hits home," sighed Paula Ciepiela. "You know, they were a resident at our program, and all of a sudden, that's it.”
Ciepiela is the program coordinator at the Keenan House for Men, a recovery home in Pittsfield operated by the Brien Center. She spoke to WAMC Thursday at a rally at Park Square in the heart of the city’s downtown.
“We have services, we constantly have services growing, but the problem outweighs the services that we have to provide right now,” she said.
Ciepiela is herself in recovery, and has lost loved ones to overdose.
“With addiction, when people hear that something is really good, that it's going to get them high, an addicted brain, they want that, they want more," she told WAMC. "They want more of that stuff. But it impacts the families, it impacts the recovery community, it impacts everything. And it's just in, it’s layers. It's layers all the way down. I mean, this is - somebody knows somebody. Somebody knows somebody.”
This year’s Overdose Awareness Day comes with some encouraging news about Berkshire County’s long and brutal struggle with addiction.
“Overdose in particular, I'm happy to report the data just officially came out that Berkshire County saw almost a 13% decrease in overdoses from last year into this year - 12.8%, I think, was the official number," said Sarah DeJesus. "But part of that is attributed to awareness campaigns, conversations, community collaborations, naloxone accessibility, and just everybody really working together to reduce stigma and support people who are using.”
DeJesus is the Program Manager of Berkshire Harm Reduction, a Berkshire Health Systems initiative.
“Narcan, or naloxone, reverses opioid overdoses and saves people, and we have a lot of public access boxes in the community, but also here today, we're able to hand out naloxone to people passing by or people stopping," she explained. "And so it gives us another touch point or an opportunity to connect with people who may not access the boxes or may not have a resource to carry or obtain naloxone.”
Gary Pratt is Executive Director of Rural Recovery Resources Incorporated, which operates the South County Recovery Center in Great Barrington.
“I couldn't give enough credit to the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services for funding 39 peer recovery support centers across Massachusetts, which, there's three of them in Berkshire County. There's us, the South County Recovery Center in Great Barrington, there's Living In Recovery in Pittsfield, and Have Hope Center in North Adams, all of which are funded by the state," Pratt told WAMC. "We recognize that peer support is extremely important in this, making connections with individuals and letting them know that they don't have to do this kind of stuff alone is huge. And for the state to make such a large investment in that, it's absolutely been a game changer. We see all the time, people coming in, finding their feet, finding recovery, and then thriving in their lives.”
The encouraging news comes as Pittsfield debates a proposed camping ban and how to generally address the needs of unhoused city residents living on the streets and in the public parks.
The conversation has brought stigmas around people suffering from addiction to the fore - stigmas that rally attendees like Marcus Ford, with his “Cool Kids Carry Naloxone” sign, are trying to reverse.
“Nobody should feel any different, everybody should be treated equally if they use drugs or not," he told WAMC. "We're all just fighting our own battles. I feel like it's important that we all- Connectivity is the opposite of addiction. So, the more we connect and come together, the more we'll be able to fight this disease.”
Ford has experienced overdoses among his friends and family, and says some of them are only alive today because of naloxone.
“It can be very scary, especially if one's not properly trained on how to use it or if one doesn't even know that it's available to them," he said. "In that moment, not knowing what to do can be very, very scary, other than call 911, but they might not make it. If you don't have Narcan, and you call 911, 911 might not make it there in time.”
DeJesus says that’s what Overdose Awareness Day is all about.
“It's all about humanity, treating people humanely and with dignity and respect, and people are just deserving of healthcare, and regardless of what situations people are in, they're still deserving of healthcare," she said. "And that's just part of it.”
For attendee Quentin Anderson, the day is a solemn one, a day for those who are no longer alive to observe it.
“Honoring the ones we've lost," he told WAMC. "Simple as that, honoring the ones we've lost.”
