Sunday, February 20, 2022
NY Occasions Op-Ed: How Religion Communities Can Reply To The Opiod Disaster
New Yok Occasions op-ed: ‘We’re All Type of Primed for Dependancy’, by Tish Harrison Warren (Priest, Anglican Church; Creator, Prayer within the Night time: For These Who Work or Watch or Weep (2021) (Christianity Right this moment’s 2022 E-book of the 12 months)):
Final August, I had a dialog with an previous good friend that I couldn’t cease excited about. I’ve identified Trevor Henderson for over a decade. Till just lately, he was the director of the Nashville Metro Well being Division’s overdose response program, which works with emergency medical staff and the group at massive to scale back drug overdoses. With sort eyes and a wealthy Northern Irish brogue, Trevor speaks with the hard-won knowledge of those that’ve walked with struggling folks.
He informed me about his work and the way because the previous two years convulsed beneath Covid-19, there was one other well being disaster in our midst. The Occasions reported that between April 2020 and 2021, over 100,000 People died of overdoses, which was “greater than the toll of automobile crashes and gun fatalities mixed,” and the very best yearly quantity on report. The rise in overdoses is partially because of the introduction of fentanyl, a strong and addictive artificial opioid. …
I used to be curious, since Trevor is each an lively member in his church and a frontrunner in his native authorities’s response to the overdose disaster, if he might assist me take into consideration the position that non secular organizations might play in caring for individuals who are addicted.
Since then I’ve usually considered Trevor and his work. We met in church and had been in a small group Bible research collectively for about 4 years. Religion communities appear to me to be uniquely positioned to reply to this disaster, providing hospitality and like to these scuffling with habit and serving to to take away the stigma surrounding it that leaves folks feeling remoted and alone. …
What position might religion communities play on this disaster? …
It’s properly established at this level that one of many huge drivers of habit is only a lack of connection, an absence of relationship. So that you flip to different coping mechanisms. I believe that’s the place church buildings are rather well positioned. When church buildings are at their greatest, I believe that that’s a great place to be a group for different folks.
Different New York Occasions op-eds by Tish Harrison Warren:
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2022/02/ny-times-op-ed-how-faith-communities-can-respond-to-the-opiod-crisis.html
