Website Offers Help to Three Audiences

The first phase of SADOD.org has been launched to serve people across Massachusetts affected by a death from substance use. The website is organized around three portals on the home page that lead to each of the three populations SADOD serves, which overlap but are each also affected by a death in different ways:

• The public (bereaved family and friends of someone who died)
• People with a history of drug use (from those for whom recovery means abstinence to those who are receiving harm-reduction services)
• Frontline care providers (those who deliver services to people who are at high risk of dying from substance use)

Each of the portals provides a path to helpful information and resources created by SADOD especially for people in Massachusetts who have suffered a loss as well as to the most helpful tools available from across the Internet. 

The site has the usual features, like a blog and calendar of events, and also offers a searchable Peer Grief Support Group Directory. The directory lists every group in Massachusetts we’ve been able to identify, both those that specialize in grief after a substance-use death and those that focus on particular audiences, such as Compassionate Friends, which serves bereaved parents, grandparents, and siblings. SADOD.org also connects you to an online form, where anyone in Massachusetts can order free copies of the booklet “Surviving the Grief of an Overdose Death.”

We call this the first phase of SADOD.org because we hope that it puts us in touch with the people we serve, so we can learn about your stories and your needs – and use what we learn to create the next version of the website. With understanding, support, and hope, we welcome you to visit this new resource – and we look forward to hearing your feedback.