To help spread awareness about the prevalence of opioid overdoses and provide educational resources about how to prevent them from occurring, the Warren Prevention Coalition — in collaboration with St. Mary of the Bay Church, the East Bay Community Action Program, and the Warren Police Department — are holding a candlelight vigil on Tuesday, Aug. 31 at 7 p.m.

Although it may be a difficult issue to discuss, advocates for addiction recovery and overdose prevention believe that the only way to address the opioid overdose epidemic is by facing it head on.

“Sometimes it’s a reality check for people that need to understand what prevention is all about in keeping our community safe and aware,” said Maria Ursini, program manager for the Warren Prevention Coalition. “People need to be aware of what’s going on.”

The evening will begin at the East Bay Recovery Center (31 Railroad Ave.), from which attendees will then walk silently to gather at a candlelight vigil outside St. Mary of the Bay, where a variety of speakers will discuss memories of lost loved ones and provide a chance to mourn as a community. The evening will conclude with a reception back at the Recovery Center.

Organizers will provide educational resources to attendees so they can spot signs to look out for that someone is possibly struggling with addiction. It will also provide access to Naloxone (also known as Narcan) training — which can be administered to somebody in order to pull them back from the midst of an overdose.
The evening, which takes place on the eve of the first day of September — recognized as National Recovery Month — is also intended to be a celebration of those who have emerged victorious from their struggles with addiction.

“At these events, we like to show that recovery is not only possible, it's a reality,” said Thomas Joyce, Director of the East Bay Recovery Center, a program within the East Bay Community Action Program. “We show people in long-term recovery and finding their pathway and being successful.”

Mr. Joyce is a licensed therapist who overcame his own addiction and was picked to be a founding member of the Opioid Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force assembled in 2016 by then-Governor Gina Raimondo.

The task force was assembled in response to sharply rising overdose deaths, and although the state had been seeing an encouraging (albeit slight) decrease in ODs since 2016, the past year brought a new spike and a new annual high of 384 deaths due to overdose.

“I say it was almost like a perfect storm. You had a fear of COVID and the isolation that came with it causing a lot of stressors,” Mr. Joyce said. “You had isolation where people were disconnected from their supports. And we had what we called a poisoned drug supply.”

He mentioned that many overdose deaths were from individuals who were recreationally using street drugs like cocaine or percocets, only to find them laced with much more potent drugs like fentanyl.

“You put all those together and that amounts to the year we had,” he said.

For their part, the Warren Police Department will be in attendance to take part in the remembrance, which includes a reminder that the Warren PD headquarters at 1 Joyce Street is recognized as one of the state’s first “Safe Stations,” which means anyone seeking help with an addiction can come in and be plugged into peer-to-peer supportive services through the East Bay Recovery Center with no questions asked.

“An important aspect of this program includes the belief that it would be more welcoming for individuals seeking help if they knew there would be no questions asked if the individual chose to not discuss the issue with officers,” said Lt. Christopher Perreault of the Warren Police Department. “The program was set up to allow an individual to be referred to support services at the Warren Police Department 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

While the tone of the evening may be somber, Mr. Joyce said it was important to remember that the date chosen is purposeful, as looking ahead to recovery while surrounded by supportive peers can provide just the right amount of hope to save someone who may be in jeopardy.

“We sell hope. We let people know that at some point in our lives we were hopeless, and someone reached out to us and gave us hope. That's what we do on a daily basis,” he said. “People don’t have to hit rock bottom in order to change … We try to reach out and catch them before they hit rock bottom and let them know that we care and that someone does believe in them.”