Peer Grief Support Voices April 2020 | Support After a Death by Overdose

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Peer Grief Support Voices

APRIL 2020

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 also who each are affected by a death in different ways:

Frontline Care Providers, Take a Test Drive

By Franklin Cook, SADOD Director

SADOD is focused on peer support, which engages one bereaved person in helping another person who is newly bereaved. This approach to helping others is powerful.

Because of the effect fatalities have on people whose job it is to take care of folks who are using drugs, healing from drug use, or trying to make their way along whatever path they are on, one of our most earnest aspirations is to strengthen peer support among frontline care providers. Whether you are a paid worker or a volunteer, that term applies if you are a provider who has regular, close contact with people at high risk of dying from drug use.

Reflections on Grief: Where Do We Begin?

By Kerry J. Bickford, Newsletter Editor

“The ABC’s and 123’s of Grief in Sobriety,” by Tami Winn, offers a frank, no-frills explanation of what the actual experience of loss looks like on a daily basis: no rose-colored glasses here. As someone who is actively riding the grief wave (having lost my son 19 months ago to an overdose), I would say that much of it rang true. Grief is a solitary journey, and there is simply no easy passage.

Peer Grief Helper Profile: Jeanne Flynn

By Franklin Cook, SADOD Director

When Jeanne Flynn’s son, Brian, died in May of 2015, “life came to a screeching halt.” After 10 long years of “hopelessness” and a “living hell on earth,” Brian had finally hit rock bottom. Then, one short month later, her husband and Brian’s father, Arthur, died of cancer. This shook Jeanne to the core, reaching deeply into a place where she began to question her faith and her life’s purpose over the next year.

Featured Resource: "The Pain of Grief"

SADOD has created a number of resources for people who have suffered the loss of a loved one to an overdose or other tragedy related to substance use. Each issue of the newsletter will feature a SADOD resource or an item we know of that is intended to help people cope with grief. This month, we are featuring the handout “The Pain of Grief,” which you can download here.

One of the most difficult things about grief is that it is painful in a way that can be devastating or even paralyzing. “The Pain of Grief” handout offers ways to think about this pain (it is a normal part of grieving) and things to do about it (give yourself permission to feel as sad as you need to feel) that some people have found to be helpful. It also explains several practices (visualizing a safe place, using affirmative self-talk) that can help a person cope with the distress they feel.

Please share “The Pain of Grief” handout far and wide. We welcome your feedback about this resource and about any of the items you find on sadod.org. Please also let us know about any resource that has given you strength or comfort on your grief journey, and we’ll consider it for inclusion on the website.

Download

Contact newsletter editor Kerry J. Bickford: [email protected]