Event rallies community to overdose fight

Chris Taylor is no stranger to overdose deaths.

Clean from drugs for more than six years, the 49-year-old Chatham man is now a housing focus outreach worker for ROCK Missions after volunteering for the agency that helps the homeless in the community.

“I’ve seen a lot of people pass away when I was in it and even since I’ve been clean,” Taylor said during an International Overdose Awareness Day event Aug. 31 at ROCK Mission’s new location at 39 Richmond St. in Chatham.

He hopes the international day “opens the eyes to everyone that we are facing a problem” with opioid addiction.

Speaking from his own experience, Taylor said, “I had no income, was living on the street and into just about every drug that they’re doing right now.”

He summoned sheer willpower to beat his addiction when he focused on helping his cousin, a fellow addict, get his children back.

Even before joining ROCK, Taylor tried to help people facing homelessness and addiction.

“I was sitting beside them at one time, so a lot of them still remember me,” Taylor said. “They’re more comfortable dealing with me.”

He knows how tough it is to beat addiction and that the odds are stacked against people, especially if they are homeless.

“I’m just hoping to inspire a few of them,” Taylor said. “They saw how bad I was at one time.”

Someone like Taylor, who has “lived experience,” is important for ROCK Missions’ peer work, because “he has the ability to relate on a deeper level with people who are still living the life,” said operations co-ordinator Renee Geniole.

The local International Overdose Awareness Day was organized by the Chatham-Kent Drug Awareness Council, of which Geniole is a member.

The council wants to get one message out, she said: “We never want to forget the people that we’ve lost to overdose, because they were somebody’s family member . . . and they were just as important.”

She added the day also recognizes the efforts of local front-line workers who face the trauma of responding to overdoses. Police, paramedics and firefighters were on hand at the event.

“I think it’s important to support all of the groups that are out there providing harm reduction,” said Jim Brooks, general manager of Chatham-Kent EMS, and to see what partnerships can be built to help reduce the risk and keep people safe.

Community awareness is important because people battling addiction and homelessness need all the help they can get and it takes the whole community to do it, said Scott Aitken, a senior captain with Chatham-Kent Fire & Rescue.

Responding to overdoses can be hard on first responders, they said.

“There are a lot of young people that are overdosing and it’s heartbreaking that we can’t do more for them,” Aitken said. “But, we do the best we can in the situation.”

Some firefighters have kids the same age that they see overdosing, he added. “It’s hard we have to live with that.”

Overdose calls are “something that we’re certainly trained to do, but it can wear on you over time,” Brooks said.

It helps when “we can see that the people we are out there responding to are being helped,” Brooks added. Agencies like ROCK “do that and make our jobs easier.”

The drug awareness council wants people to know they can help drug users prevent overdoses, Geniole said.

“People should always carry Naloxone (medication used to treat opioid overdoses), whether you live in an area where there are a lot of people who use drugs or not,” she said.

“If you run into someone who you suspect has overdosed, it’s not going to hurt to give them a Naloxone shot,” she added. “You may save somebody’s life.”