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Community DC Pam Jenkins Shatterproof · Community D.C.

0:00
Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community DC.
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Speaker 1: I'm your host Dennis Glasgow. This morning, we welcome back
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Speaker 1: to the program Pam Jenkins. She is the CEO for Shadowproof,
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Speaker 1: a national nonprofit organization dedicated to reversing the US addiction
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Speaker 1: crisis by transforming addiction treatment and instigma and providing education.
0:17
Speaker 1: Here is my thirty minute conversation with Pam. I hope
0:20
Speaker 1: you enjoyed as much as I did.
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Speaker 2: Good morning, Pam, Good morning Dennis.
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Speaker 3: Well, it's great to have you boored. And I know
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Speaker 3: that you're new into the role, but we had Shadowproof
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Speaker 3: on a couple of years ago and I loved my
0:30
Speaker 3: talk a few years back, and I'm glad we have
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Speaker 3: you now. I know that what eight nine months into
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Speaker 3: the role is CEO and there's so much to talk
0:36
Speaker 3: about besides just the history educating our listeners at Community
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Speaker 3: d C about what you and your team do there,
0:41
Speaker 3: but events, how you're funded, how people can donate, volunteering,
0:46
Speaker 3: and all the exceptional work that you and your team
0:48
Speaker 3: are doing out there. What I'd love to do, because
0:50
Speaker 3: I know Shadowproof has been a part of your life
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Speaker 3: for a long time. Can you tell me a little
0:54
Speaker 3: bit about the history of Shadowproof.
0:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'd love to and thanks again for having a
1:00
Speaker 4: on Shatterproof was created about thirteen years ago and it
1:06
Speaker 4: was the inception was tied to tragedy, and that is
1:12
Speaker 4: a father who lost his son to suicide, a son
1:17
Speaker 4: who had been trying for many years to recover from
1:21
Speaker 4: drug and alcohol use, and it was exceedingly difficult. But
1:27
Speaker 4: he also felt a great sense as a son of
1:30
Speaker 4: shame that he brought to the family because people judge
1:33
Speaker 4: too often, judge families and judge people. It is the
1:37
Speaker 4: stigma that unfortunately makes it very tough for anybody who
1:42
Speaker 4: has this disease and ultimately chose to take his life.
1:46
Speaker 4: And I think as a dad, our founder Gary Mendel,
1:51
Speaker 4: thought about what he could have done differently as a father,
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Speaker 4: what he did wrong, and how is there a way
1:59
Speaker 4: to help other families not have the same experience. And
2:04
Speaker 4: I think, as you know Dennis, overdose is the number
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Speaker 4: one killer of eighteen to forty four year olds in
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Speaker 4: this country. It is a huge problem and tragedy because
2:15
Speaker 4: it is taking the life of people in their twenties
2:18
Speaker 4: and their thirties and their forties, and they're in the
2:22
Speaker 4: prime of their life, they're in the workplace, their mothers
2:25
Speaker 4: and fathers and sisters and brothers, and it is you know,
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Speaker 4: it's just frightening and tragic to have so many people
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Speaker 4: lose their lives in ways that it's so disruptive to families.
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Speaker 2: It's such a family disease.
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Speaker 4: And I think the fact that we were founded by
2:45
Speaker 4: a family that wanted other families to have a different
2:49
Speaker 4: experience really shaped how we became an organization that was
2:56
Speaker 4: both system change oriented, like what can we do to
2:59
Speaker 4: change things up that change the healthcare system, change how
3:04
Speaker 4: people are treated, fight stigma, what we can do to
3:10
Speaker 4: reduce the judgment that takes place that keeps so many
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Speaker 4: people from getting treated or from telling anybody or ever
3:17
Speaker 4: acknowledging to their employers as they're afraid they're going to
3:20
Speaker 4: get fired.
3:21
Speaker 2: People will talk.
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Speaker 4: How do we we do that as well as help
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Speaker 4: families today with navigating a very complex and confusing addiction
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Speaker 4: treatment world for a disease that impacts forty eight million
3:37
Speaker 4: people in America and has a real devastating toll on
3:41
Speaker 4: on our on our district, on the District of Columbia,
3:44
Speaker 4: but also when the areas around the whole DMV impacts
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Speaker 4: so many people. So today, thirteen years later, we've really
3:52
Speaker 4: grown into an organization that has sort of three big missions,
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Speaker 4: and one is to stop addiction before it starts, and
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Speaker 4: that is helping both through policy change but also support
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Speaker 4: for families on things to know about prevention and reducing
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Speaker 4: access for young people to addictive substances. Secondly is closing
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Speaker 4: the treatment gap. So if you think about almost any
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Speaker 4: other disease, most people, once they're diagnosed with a disease,
4:24
Speaker 4: they get treated and they start on whatever that course
4:27
Speaker 4: of either medication or ongoing support. But with substance use disorder,
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Speaker 4: again because of stigma, because people don't want to acknowledge it,
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Speaker 4: there is a huge gap. Only about thirteen percent of
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Speaker 4: people with a substance use disorder actually get treated and
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Speaker 4: in that delay creates a lot of the disruption and
4:54
Speaker 4: sickness and in some cases death because of that. So
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Speaker 4: we want to close that treatment gap, and in fact,
5:00
Speaker 4: people who have moderate to severe substance use disorder we
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Speaker 4: call that, you know, all the way to what we
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Speaker 4: call addiction is severe substance use disorder. Even with that,
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Speaker 4: only less than half of people are getting treated. Wow,
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Speaker 4: so they're just trying to figure it out on their
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Speaker 4: own and you know, doing their best and it's a
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Speaker 4: disease and they aren't able to do that. And the
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Speaker 4: third thing we're doing is helping people get quality care
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Speaker 4: and get care that is going to help them get better.
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Speaker 4: And that is everything from collecting quality information, knowing which
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Speaker 4: are the better treatment providers than others, and then helping
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Speaker 4: people know what are the questions to ask and what
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Speaker 4: do you do if you do have a loved one
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Speaker 4: has a diagnosis, how do we help you get through
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Speaker 4: that very very challenging time.
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Speaker 3: Well, Pam, there's a lot to unpack there, and I
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Speaker 3: want to thank you for that explanation on the history.
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Speaker 3: You know, it always impresses me with organizations like yours
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Speaker 3: and how it was started from a horrific family tragedy,
6:03
Speaker 3: having to deal with that, but then taking it to
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Speaker 3: the next level by trying to help others where you
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Speaker 3: got hurt so badly, and it's a testament to humanity
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Speaker 3: and trying to plow forward, and it's really exceptional. I'm
6:15
Speaker 3: curious because I know you've known Shatterproof and it's been
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Speaker 3: in your life for a long time. Where it started
6:20
Speaker 3: thirteen years ago. And I know you're only in the
6:22
Speaker 3: role eight months as CEO, but can you tell me
6:25
Speaker 3: a little bit. And I want to talk about advocation
6:27
Speaker 3: just a second, because I know that's very important and
6:30
Speaker 3: all the other things that we want to chat about
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Speaker 3: over the next thirty minutes here in Community DC about
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Speaker 3: how the actual Shatterproof from where it started thirteen years
6:38
Speaker 3: ago to where it is today. What are some of
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Speaker 3: the big changes that you've seen that you've been very
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Speaker 3: impressed by.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, some of the changes are how we've gotten funded,
6:49
Speaker 4: and I think some of what we do is appealing
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Speaker 4: to people who've been impacted and people who are allies
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Speaker 4: who care very deeply about their community and the resilience
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Speaker 4: around substituse disorder, but also getting states and metropolitan areas
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Speaker 4: to step up and increase funding for some of the
7:14
Speaker 4: work that we're doing, and philanthropy who where they recognize
7:21
Speaker 4: sometimes you've got to change the system, right. It's an
7:25
Speaker 4: you can only go so far by educating people and
7:28
Speaker 4: helping people, but sometimes there's barriers in the way that
7:31
Speaker 4: you've really got to move and chatter Proof has become
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Speaker 4: highly respected within healthcare for understanding and digging into what
7:41
Speaker 4: is what have we learned from all the research that's
7:44
Speaker 4: out there about what works, what kind of care works,
7:49
Speaker 4: and how do we drive and push policy that makes
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Speaker 4: it easier for healthcare system to give people the care
7:57
Speaker 4: they deserve because there were all kinds of barriers to that,
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Speaker 4: including providers who have stigma and who haven't embraced the
8:05
Speaker 4: you know, sort of all of that research has shown
8:07
Speaker 4: on evidence based programs, So I think our ability to
8:12
Speaker 4: get funded for doing some of that system change at
8:15
Speaker 4: the same time that we're helping people day to day
8:18
Speaker 4: has been transformational. We played a very big role in
8:23
Speaker 4: making sure in the lock zone, which is a drug
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Speaker 4: that helps overturn overdose, so has saved so many lives
8:32
Speaker 4: because by having even the ems, if the EMTs show
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Speaker 4: up and somebody is overdosed, they have an a lock
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Speaker 4: zone now and almost every state and almost every city
8:43
Speaker 4: to be able to save that person's life. And that
8:48
Speaker 4: was something that early and you know, ten years ago,
8:51
Speaker 4: we were working really hard at the very beginning when
8:54
Speaker 4: no one had ever even heard of a lock zone
8:57
Speaker 4: to make that available and changing laws that allow people
9:01
Speaker 4: to be good Samaritans without worrying that they're going to
9:03
Speaker 4: get in trouble, right if they have a friend who's
9:07
Speaker 4: who has overdosed ors, you know, in trouble that they
9:11
Speaker 4: can call the police, and yet first responders come without
9:15
Speaker 4: putting themselves in some sort of you know, jeopardy, legal jeopardy.
9:21
Speaker 4: Those are the kinds of things that I think, over
9:23
Speaker 4: time have made such a big impact in our ability
9:26
Speaker 4: to help people in a time of crisis, and that
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Speaker 4: I'm really proud of. And about seven years ago, we
9:34
Speaker 4: realized there were no standards of care anywhere in this
9:38
Speaker 4: country for.
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Speaker 2: People with substitutes.
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Speaker 4: It was unbelievable. And I know we talked about this
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Speaker 4: last time we were with you, but we worked with
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Speaker 4: the whole industry where we cross healthcare to get eight
9:52
Speaker 4: agreed upon principles that these are going to be standards
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Speaker 4: that we're all going to hold ourselves accountable for and
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Speaker 4: that people should know that they that trutment providers are
10:04
Speaker 4: trying to adhere to those because it just didn't exist,
10:07
Speaker 4: and it was every which way you would you'd pick
10:10
Speaker 4: a place to get care just based on what it
10:14
Speaker 4: looked like, but the building look like and you know,
10:18
Speaker 4: if somebody said online something nice about them, and so
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Speaker 4: I think that that has been something we're really proud of,
10:26
Speaker 4: but it has been we do it invisibly. It's kind
10:30
Speaker 4: of behind the scenes. It's you don't see it because
10:34
Speaker 4: is working in the halls of Congress or working with
10:37
Speaker 4: healthcare companies. And something we've been doing more recently that
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Speaker 4: I am really excited about is we've been training healthcare
10:44
Speaker 4: workers on how to give better care to people with
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Speaker 4: a substance us die or people deserve good care even
10:51
Speaker 4: if they are addicted to drugs and alcohol. They deserve
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Speaker 4: the care that everybody deserves when you're sick. And that
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Speaker 4: is making a big difference.
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Speaker 2: Not enough.
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Speaker 4: We still have so much to do and so much
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Speaker 4: more for people to sort of know and understand, but
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Speaker 4: we're making progress and that's you know, that's huge.
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Speaker 3: Well, I'm glad to hear that, and I want to
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Speaker 3: talk a little bit more about that in advocation. You know,
11:17
Speaker 3: I've had the good fortune this show to talk to
11:19
Speaker 3: different agencies where they deal with died by suicide and
11:23
Speaker 3: some really exceptional people including AFSP and also you know,
11:28
Speaker 3: I've dealt with with other ones when it comes to
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Speaker 3: mental wellness and the one thing as a father of
11:34
Speaker 3: a twenty three year old and Generation Z that has
11:36
Speaker 3: gone through a lot of stuff that I never did,
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Speaker 3: and then I'm learning as a sixty year old dad.
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Speaker 3: Now there's really exceptional things happening out there. But I
11:46
Speaker 3: know this could be its own podcast for my next question,
11:48
Speaker 3: But it seems like mental health and also died by
11:52
Speaker 3: suicide are now the norms where we can talk about them.
11:55
Speaker 3: And you've usually the word stigma several times. Yeah, if
11:59
Speaker 3: it is held back when it comes to addiction, why
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Speaker 3: is there still a stigma on addiction right now? I'm
12:05
Speaker 3: very curious about that, and you know, I once again,
12:07
Speaker 3: we could talk about it forever, but you know, as
12:09
Speaker 3: you see it into this role knowing shadow proof as
12:11
Speaker 3: long as you've had and now being in the role
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Speaker 3: of CEO, why is there still a stigma about addiction
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Speaker 3: out there?
12:16
Speaker 2: Yeah?
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Speaker 4: I think the big difference because it used to be
12:19
Speaker 4: with mental health too, right, Nobody talked about the fact
12:22
Speaker 4: that they had depression or we're seeing a therapist or
12:25
Speaker 4: seeing a psychiatrist.
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Speaker 2: That was just so forbidden.
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Speaker 4: Back you know, ten even ten years ago, we've made
12:32
Speaker 4: so much progress there. But I think there's a greater
12:35
Speaker 4: recognition than mental health is health, right, it is a
12:38
Speaker 4: disease and it needs medical care. But with substance use disorder,
12:45
Speaker 4: because it's tied to a behavior, is that the general senses.
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Speaker 2: Why don't people just stop?
12:53
Speaker 4: It's a moral failing and don't recognize that it is
12:57
Speaker 4: a mental health issue. It is mental health health disease,
13:01
Speaker 4: just like depression, just like anxiety, like just like psychosis.
13:05
Speaker 2: And in fact, it's co occurring.
13:08
Speaker 4: In many cases people have ADHD or other mental health
13:14
Speaker 4: disorders that actually put them at greater risk of having
13:17
Speaker 4: a substance use disorder. And we're just really beginning to
13:20
Speaker 4: become more aware of that and understand the inner relationship
13:24
Speaker 4: between mental health and substance use disorder. But what happens
13:29
Speaker 4: when you become addicted or when you have a substance
13:33
Speaker 4: use disorder is that changes your brain. It actually changes
13:39
Speaker 4: your brain, and it impacts the part of your brain
13:43
Speaker 4: that makes good decisions, and it impacts the part of
13:47
Speaker 4: your brain that has impulse control. So somebody who is
13:51
Speaker 4: addicted no longer can tap into the part of their
13:54
Speaker 4: brain that you and I can saying Hey, I'm not
13:56
Speaker 4: going to do that because I'm going to get hurt.
13:58
Speaker 4: I'm not going to cross this street when there's cars
14:01
Speaker 4: coming because I.
14:01
Speaker 2: Could get hurt.
14:03
Speaker 4: You lose your ability to make those kinds of informed
14:07
Speaker 4: logical decisions because you've lost that impulse control. And so
14:12
Speaker 4: that's where you need medical assistance. You need to be
14:15
Speaker 4: able to You have a disease, and your disease has
14:18
Speaker 4: impacted your brain, just like other mental health diseases, and
14:23
Speaker 4: so that is not widely known, and that is why
14:27
Speaker 4: so many people hide their disease because they are going
14:32
Speaker 4: to be judged as simply having no self control, and
14:37
Speaker 4: it's seen as a moral failing rather than recognizing there's
14:40
Speaker 4: actually a medical thing that has happened to your body
14:44
Speaker 4: and you need medical care. And I think that is
14:47
Speaker 4: why there is still stigma. That is why people don't
14:49
Speaker 4: want to tell anyone, and they're afraid of acknowledging it
14:54
Speaker 4: at work, so they're not getting necessarily the insurance coverage
14:57
Speaker 4: and treatment there because they're afraid they're to lose their
15:00
Speaker 4: job if they acknowledge that they have a problem with
15:04
Speaker 4: drugs and alcohol.
15:05
Speaker 3: Right, Well, that's well said, and thanks for explaining all that.
15:08
Speaker 3: I did want to talk just a little bit more
15:11
Speaker 3: about advocating. You mentioned Capitol Hill and all the things
15:15
Speaker 3: that you know, you have access to and talking about it,
15:18
Speaker 3: you know, when it comes to the role eight months
15:20
Speaker 3: into it and advocating for shadow proof and what you're doing,
15:24
Speaker 3: what have you done and what do you look forward
15:26
Speaker 3: to doing when it comes to advocation.
15:30
Speaker 4: One of the things we did was we worked with
15:32
Speaker 4: the federal government to change how smaller amounts of packaging
15:39
Speaker 4: coming from other countries, how that is treated at the border.
15:45
Speaker 4: It used to be that if it was packaged, you know,
15:48
Speaker 4: under a sort of large size, it was something called
15:52
Speaker 4: Deminimus policy that it just was allowed to come in
15:56
Speaker 4: and not searched. And so a lot of the fentanyl
15:59
Speaker 4: that was coming into the country was deliberately packaged in
16:03
Speaker 4: a way that it would be underneath that threshold for
16:06
Speaker 4: being checked. Boy, since that last year was put into effect,
16:13
Speaker 4: it is making a real difference in the level of
16:18
Speaker 4: fetanol that's coming into the country. If you look at
16:21
Speaker 4: last year's overdose statistics, they went down a lot, and
16:26
Speaker 4: I think there was a little sort of maybe too
16:29
Speaker 4: much celebration about oh, look, you know, instead of one
16:33
Speaker 4: hundred and twenty thousand people dye, ninety thousand people died
16:37
Speaker 4: of overdose.
16:38
Speaker 2: And that's huge.
16:39
Speaker 4: It is hugely important by reducing the supply of the
16:43
Speaker 4: drugs coming into the country. It's still the unacceptableness and
16:47
Speaker 4: still a huge number of people, many of whom are young.
16:51
Speaker 4: So we certainly shouldn't be declaring victory, but it's something
16:54
Speaker 4: we're proud of being part of that. And then every
16:58
Speaker 4: day we're working really hard to reduce access to synthetic
17:06
Speaker 4: hemp to marijuana among young people because every year that
17:12
Speaker 4: we can delay their first use of those substances, it
17:17
Speaker 4: has a huge impact on whether or not they are
17:19
Speaker 4: likely eventually to develop a substance use disorder. So if
17:22
Speaker 4: they can get to agten without having use drugs or alcohol,
17:28
Speaker 4: they are very unlikely to in their later years develop
17:32
Speaker 4: an SuDS. So so that's another thing we've been fighting
17:35
Speaker 4: for and something that I feel very strongly about is
17:40
Speaker 4: we need we need to do more to make sure
17:43
Speaker 4: that funding for prevention doesn't get cut and that funding
17:49
Speaker 4: for people who are on Medicaid that we can continue
17:52
Speaker 4: to make sure they have access to care. So we're
17:55
Speaker 4: working hard to on making sure that there is funding available,
18:03
Speaker 4: services available for those people who can't afford the services themselves.
18:07
Speaker 3: Well, those are all big things. You know, one of
18:09
Speaker 3: the things that I get a takeaway from, especially when
18:12
Speaker 3: you talk about marijuana use or any kind of other
18:15
Speaker 3: pills at a young age. It really does start at home,
18:18
Speaker 3: doesn't you know. My wife and I started at a
18:21
Speaker 3: pretty young age with our daughter about talking about the
18:23
Speaker 3: dangers of drugs and alcohol and all the things that
18:26
Speaker 3: you know, you would think, you know, you would take
18:28
Speaker 3: for granted, but we had to have the frank discussions.
18:30
Speaker 3: I'm glad we did. Our daughter listened, and you know,
18:34
Speaker 3: to my knowledge, didn't do anything until after she was eighteen.
18:38
Speaker 3: And you know, this really does start at home, whether
18:41
Speaker 3: it's a caregiver, whether it is grandparents or the parents
18:45
Speaker 3: or whoever, it is at home. A lot of these discussions.
18:48
Speaker 3: It's so important to start at home, isn't it.
18:51
Speaker 2: It really is.
18:52
Speaker 4: And again when I when I talk about addiction being
18:55
Speaker 4: a family disease, it is from a standpoint of prevention
18:58
Speaker 4: as well as from the standpoint of once people need treatment,
19:02
Speaker 4: it's it's a it's a continuum. But we have we
19:05
Speaker 4: developed a guide for parents on how to talk to
19:08
Speaker 4: your kids called the Caregiver's Guide that is on shadowproof
19:13
Speaker 4: dot org and people can get it and it doesn't
19:15
Speaker 4: cost anything, and it's just it's simple. It's it's uh
19:20
Speaker 4: uh designed to help you depending on the age of
19:24
Speaker 4: your children, because it's different conversations that you have when
19:26
Speaker 4: they're younger versus when they're in middle school and high school.
19:31
Speaker 4: And and it's not just one conversation, right, it's not
19:35
Speaker 4: the one time sit down and have the birds might
19:37
Speaker 4: be conversation with your child, but rather an ongoing awareness
19:42
Speaker 4: of who their friends are and what are they doing,
19:44
Speaker 4: and and having stutting expectations, and then just also being
19:50
Speaker 4: observant and recognizing if your child has, you know, some
19:55
Speaker 4: of the sort of broader mental health signs of concern,
20:00
Speaker 4: whether that's appearing to have ADHD or some sense of
20:04
Speaker 4: depression or anxiety. Boy getting them some help, even if
20:08
Speaker 4: it starts with a counselor at school, is so important
20:12
Speaker 4: because the earlier we can identify that a child might
20:16
Speaker 4: be at risk and give them some added support, the
20:21
Speaker 4: greater the chance they're going to get through those tough
20:23
Speaker 4: years of adolescents and teens and do that safely and
20:28
Speaker 4: in a way that they can then live full and
20:31
Speaker 4: fulfilling lives.
20:32
Speaker 2: And that's what every parent wants for their child.
20:35
Speaker 3: Agreed, that's good advice. Thanks for that. I did want
20:37
Speaker 3: to talk a little bit more about the addiction of
20:40
Speaker 3: drugs out there, and I know there's so many different
20:42
Speaker 3: things that you can be addicted to, but I imagine that
20:45
Speaker 3: opiates are really big on your list, and that's been
20:48
Speaker 3: going on for decades now, and it's been well documented
20:51
Speaker 3: in movies and documentaries and it's still out there and
20:54
Speaker 3: most of the United States. With that said, is you
20:56
Speaker 3: take a look at different medications or drugs out there.
21:00
Speaker 3: I don't know if there's a top five, a top
21:01
Speaker 3: ten list, and I imagine there's hundreds of different things
21:04
Speaker 3: you can be addicted to. As I mentioned, what are
21:06
Speaker 3: you really looking at that kind of keeps you up
21:08
Speaker 3: at night?
21:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, I you know, when it comes to overdose and
21:13
Speaker 4: the risk there, it is like it is fentanyl. It
21:18
Speaker 4: is almost entirely fentanyl, and that has really flooded, you know,
21:23
Speaker 4: our streets. Part of what can be really scary there
21:28
Speaker 4: is you can have a pill that you don't think
21:31
Speaker 4: has fentanyl in it, it's lays with fentanyl. And I'm
21:34
Speaker 4: sure you've heard the expression one pill can kill and
21:39
Speaker 4: the availability of fentanyl test strips, so you can see
21:42
Speaker 4: that this will you might think is xanax, but this
21:44
Speaker 4: is a drug that that it could be lethal, is
21:49
Speaker 4: you know, is really important and it's just another way
21:52
Speaker 4: in which I think people can create some protection. But
21:57
Speaker 4: the other the other thing is every every community, everyone
22:02
Speaker 4: should carrying a lock zone. Again, it's like it's like
22:05
Speaker 4: a defibrillator, it's like a fire extinguisher. These are like
22:08
Speaker 4: things that should be in every workplace because it can
22:11
Speaker 4: save lives in a crisis. And so I you know,
22:15
Speaker 4: so that that is another thing. But as far as
22:18
Speaker 4: just what we're seeing and what we worry about, fenol
22:20
Speaker 4: has been by far the greatest problem there.
22:25
Speaker 2: Cannabis we have.
22:27
Speaker 4: We're beginning to learn it has more harm than I
22:31
Speaker 4: think we realized, and a lot of states that were
22:34
Speaker 4: quick to legalize recreational cannabis have been finding that is
22:39
Speaker 4: that is leading to some health issues that hadn't been anticipated.
22:44
Speaker 4: And some of that is heavy use of marijuana can
22:48
Speaker 4: lead to psychosis, and especially for developing brains. You're under
22:53
Speaker 4: twenty six years old, your brain is still developing, and
22:57
Speaker 4: it can have a much more harmful effect you.
23:01
Speaker 2: And that is a very scary thing.
23:03
Speaker 4: We talk to families all the time who had no
23:07
Speaker 4: idea that the heavy use of marijuana could lead to psychosis,
23:12
Speaker 4: and it's very scary, and it's then you have, you know,
23:16
Speaker 4: a problem that is very, very challenging for the family
23:20
Speaker 4: going forward. So as much as I think we've all
23:23
Speaker 4: come to think there's no harm, there were coming to
23:26
Speaker 4: learn there actually is greater harm in heavy use of
23:30
Speaker 4: marijuana than we ever expected. And then alcohol, we don't
23:33
Speaker 4: talk about it because it's just so ubiquitous right as
23:37
Speaker 4: part of our culture, and many people enjoy recreational use
23:43
Speaker 4: of alcohol and do so responsibly. But what we also
23:47
Speaker 4: know that it contributes to about one hundred and eighty
23:51
Speaker 4: thousand deaths a year, whether that is through liver disease
23:56
Speaker 4: or through accidents and auto accidents that are in which
24:03
Speaker 4: somebody was impaired. And so I think we underestimate the
24:09
Speaker 4: impact and the harm to our communities and to our
24:12
Speaker 4: families from heavy use of alcohol and recognize that it
24:17
Speaker 4: too requires in many cases, medical treatment once it gets
24:20
Speaker 4: to a certain level where somebody's not able to stop themselves.
24:24
Speaker 3: Pam, I've only got about five minutes left, and there's
24:26
Speaker 3: a couple of things I want to tackle. And you
24:28
Speaker 3: mentioned it off the top about ways to give, and
24:30
Speaker 3: you and your team on your beautiful website that's easy
24:32
Speaker 3: to navigate that. We'll give one more time, folks at
24:34
Speaker 3: the end of our interview about ways to give the
24:37
Speaker 3: nice thing that you and your team have really created.
24:39
Speaker 3: Is there a myriad of different ways to give? Can
24:42
Speaker 3: you go over some of them? Because you've done an
24:43
Speaker 3: exceptional job. It's just not you can get on the
24:45
Speaker 3: website and donate money. You've done vehicles and flowers and
24:49
Speaker 3: given memory cryptocurrency really is exceptional what you've done. Can
24:52
Speaker 3: you go over a.
24:52
Speaker 2: Few thank you? Yeah?
24:54
Speaker 4: No. Shatterproof dot org is a place to go and
25:00
Speaker 4: opportunities to both donate and also to get involved and
25:04
Speaker 4: help and advocacy. One of the I think most moving
25:10
Speaker 4: parts of our website and our organization is that we
25:13
Speaker 4: created a place for people to honor immemorialize people they
25:19
Speaker 4: love who they have lost to this disease.
25:21
Speaker 3: By the way, I love that you've done this. I
25:23
Speaker 3: haven't seen this on too many websites. It's about a
25:26
Speaker 3: lasting memory of somebody and it's so smart. I'm glad
25:29
Speaker 3: you guys have done this.
25:30
Speaker 2: It's a lasting memory.
25:31
Speaker 4: It reminds me very much of for those who are
25:34
Speaker 4: who are my age and remember the AIDS quilt from
25:37
Speaker 4: back in the nineteen nineties, right like recognizing again that
25:41
Speaker 4: was back when AIDS was the number one killer of
25:43
Speaker 4: eighteen to forty forty four year old so that was
25:46
Speaker 4: young people and families wanted to, you know, to honor
25:49
Speaker 4: those people because they shouldn't have been defined just by
25:52
Speaker 4: the disease that killed them, but rather by the life
25:55
Speaker 4: that they led. And that is just the case. So
25:58
Speaker 4: the stories are so moving of families who have people
26:02
Speaker 4: that they loved and who contributed so much to their
26:06
Speaker 4: coworkers and to their communities who they lost to this
26:10
Speaker 4: really tragic disease, and so being able to honor them,
26:13
Speaker 4: keep those memories alive and tell those stories has been
26:17
Speaker 4: really really important. I do want to mention Dennis that
26:21
Speaker 4: in October will hold our annual walk and that's the
26:25
Speaker 4: district pier at the Wharf on October seventeenth. But registration
26:29
Speaker 4: is starting in two weeks.
26:32
Speaker 2: Time to start thinking now.
26:33
Speaker 4: April one is when you can when you can begin
26:36
Speaker 4: to sign up for that. So thinking about how to
26:38
Speaker 4: be an ally, how to show your support or if
26:41
Speaker 4: you're a person with a subnc use disorder, how to
26:44
Speaker 4: stand up for other people like you and really honestly
26:46
Speaker 4: stand up for yourself because you deserve to be to
26:51
Speaker 4: get the same kind of support that other people have
26:54
Speaker 4: for the illnesses that they have. So it's your chance
26:57
Speaker 4: to really support this community and others. And then we're
27:02
Speaker 4: also going to have a walk and talk series. It'll
27:04
Speaker 4: start in April. We'll have information shortly on our website
27:08
Speaker 4: around that so people can meet other people who also
27:12
Speaker 4: care about this and want to advocate for those who
27:15
Speaker 4: need our support.
27:16
Speaker 3: Outstanding. You know, one of the other things about the
27:18
Speaker 3: website that you've done so well is that there's a
27:21
Speaker 3: ton of education on there, including even addiction one on one.
27:25
Speaker 3: So if people have and I've always been told to
27:29
Speaker 3: my doctor, never go to the Google doctor, just come
27:31
Speaker 3: to me or come to actually somebody that does what
27:33
Speaker 3: they're talking about. So we're going to encourage you to
27:35
Speaker 3: go to the website because I know you work with
27:38
Speaker 3: researchers and doctors and people that live this every day.
27:41
Speaker 3: So if you go to the website and check out
27:42
Speaker 3: about addiction one on one and all the other things
27:44
Speaker 3: that you offer, that's really the place to go to
27:46
Speaker 3: check out if you don't know what's going on, or
27:48
Speaker 3: if you send something's happening within your family, a friend
27:51
Speaker 3: or co worker. Correct.
27:53
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you for saying that.
27:55
Speaker 4: And yes, we have some of the luminarias, some really
27:57
Speaker 4: really smart people in the field. We're supported by so
28:01
Speaker 4: many people, physicians and researchers who are every day trying
28:06
Speaker 4: to improve, whether it is the care for today, or
28:08
Speaker 4: the care for people tomorrow, or ending the stigma forever.
28:12
Speaker 4: So yes, come and know that the resources are very
28:17
Speaker 4: well researched and really designed to help you better understand
28:21
Speaker 4: what can be just a very confusing and complex disease.
28:26
Speaker 2: So shadowproof dot org.
28:28
Speaker 3: Good, all right, I only have about a minute left.
28:30
Speaker 3: I just want to get some final thoughts from you,
28:32
Speaker 3: and I thank you so much for your viable time. Pam,
28:35
Speaker 3: just what we talked about website one more time, but
28:38
Speaker 3: just some final thoughts from you. The floor is yours.
28:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
28:42
Speaker 4: Just to reinforce that this is such a widespread it
28:45
Speaker 4: as a public health crisis of our time, everybody knows
28:48
Speaker 4: somebody who has been impacted, and with forty eight million
28:52
Speaker 4: people with a substitutes disorder, and so many people one
28:56
Speaker 4: in eight people in our community have a subtenc use
29:01
Speaker 4: disorder and so being an ally showing up supporting them
29:06
Speaker 4: and recognizing they deserve care, they deserve our support, they
29:10
Speaker 4: deserve our compassion is so huge and will make a
29:15
Speaker 4: big difference by supporting what Shatterproof does every day in
29:19
Speaker 4: saving lives and really helping the strength of our community
29:23
Speaker 4: and the strength of our families. Shadowproof dot org and
29:26
Speaker 4: really appreciate being able to be here today.
29:29
Speaker 3: Well it's our pleasure. I'm glad that you could do.
29:30
Speaker 3: And you know what, I know you've known Shatterproof for
29:33
Speaker 3: a long time, but they got the right person because
29:35
Speaker 3: now I know you educated about what you're doing there.
29:37
Speaker 3: But I can also tell the passion that you have,
29:39
Speaker 3: and that really is when you're leading a company, whether
29:41
Speaker 3: it's for nonprofit, Pam, you know that you need the
29:43
Speaker 3: passion because you have to get up every day. It
29:46
Speaker 3: is not hard or it is hard, folks, to run
29:48
Speaker 3: a nonprofit out there. It really is. It's tough. We've
29:51
Speaker 3: learned that in this series. Listen, Pam, thank you so
29:53
Speaker 3: much for valuable time. I really appreciate it. Get my
29:55
Speaker 3: best to your team and thank you so much for
29:57
Speaker 3: joining us our community DC, thank you so much, dus