Latest / The iHeart SoCal Show / Join Shatterproof For Their Walk To End Addiction In LA Nov. 7th
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Today, talking about the millions of people who are struggling
- 0:03Speaker 1: with alcohol and drug addiction. And Shatterproof wants to change that. Hi,
- 0:08Speaker 1: it's Lisa Fox. This is the I Heart SoCal Show.
- 0:11Speaker 1: Shatterproof is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to reversing the
- 0:15Speaker 1: addiction crisis here in the U.S. by transforming how substance
- 0:18Speaker 1: use disorders are prevented, treated, and understood. They have their
- 0:22Speaker 1: huge annual event happening next Saturday, their seventh annual Shatterproof
- 0:26Speaker 1: Walk to End Addiction at Griffith Park next Saturday.
- 0:29Speaker 2: All the info at shatterproof.org.
- 0:31Speaker 1: And to tell us more is their CEO, Pam Jenkins.
- 0:35Speaker 2: Hi, Pam.
- 0:36Speaker 3: Hi, Lisa. Thank you for having me.
- 0:38Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh. I love your slogan. Together we are
- 0:42Speaker 1: stronger than addiction. Together we're stronger than addiction. I mean,
- 0:47Speaker 1: where do you even start with tackling addiction? how tough
- 0:50Speaker 1: this is for so many people. My gosh, where do
- 0:52Speaker 1: you start?
- 0:54Speaker 3: It is a massive, a massive mission. And I feel
- 0:59Speaker 3: it every single day. In California alone, 5 million people
- 1:03Speaker 3: have a substance use disorder now. Many of them are
- 1:07Speaker 3: either too ashamed or don't know what to do as
- 1:09Speaker 3: far as getting care. And so many families are impacted
- 1:13Speaker 3: by it. And then across the whole country, it just
- 1:16Speaker 3: has a huge impact. But we're doing our best to
- 1:21Speaker 3: raise money, to tackle the issue in all the ways
- 1:24Speaker 3: that we can, and to... and to engage people all
- 1:28Speaker 3: across L.A. to help us do this.
- 1:30Speaker 2: Sure, sure.
- 1:31Speaker 1: Can you share the story as to how Shatterproof, the
- 1:34Speaker 1: name and how it came about and how this organization
- 1:36Speaker 1: got started?
- 1:37Speaker 3: Yeah, we are 13 years old, just celebrated our 13th birthday,
- 1:42Speaker 3: and so pretty new. But the organization started when a
- 1:46Speaker 3: father was lost his son to addiction. His son's name
- 1:51Speaker 3: was Brian. And Brian had tried for eight years to
- 1:55Speaker 3: get to heal from substance use. And it was ultimately,
- 2:02Speaker 3: he just felt that he had brought so much shame
- 2:04Speaker 3: to his family and he just didn't feel, you know,
- 2:07Speaker 3: they could go on.
- 2:08Speaker 1: And it was.
- 2:09Speaker 3: such a heartbreak for the family. And I think for
- 2:12Speaker 3: the father to figure out what could we have done differently,
- 2:16Speaker 3: what should we have done and really put a ton
- 2:18Speaker 3: of time into researching the treatments and care for addiction
- 2:22Speaker 3: and trying to understand how to work with a family
- 2:25Speaker 3: member and how he could help other families. And that
- 2:28Speaker 3: work ultimately led to the creation of Shatterproof. And the
- 2:32Speaker 3: name Shatterproof is really about building resilience, like saying, we
- 2:37Speaker 3: can be stronger than addiction. And it's possible. Recovery is possible,
- 2:41Speaker 3: which is one of our biggest messages. Because we hear
- 2:43Speaker 3: the stories and we see the loss that takes place
- 2:46Speaker 3: when people are not able to recover. And so part
- 2:49Speaker 3: of what we want to do is help families know
- 2:52Speaker 3: what are the questions you should ask. And also just
- 2:55Speaker 3: to fight the stigma around it because this is a
- 2:58Speaker 3: major chronic disease, the number one killer of 18 to
- 3:02Speaker 3: 44-year-olds in America. And it's not treated like a disease.
- 3:06Speaker 3: It's treated too often like a moral failing, like people
- 3:08Speaker 3: have failed when in fact their brains have changed. And
- 3:11Speaker 3: it is a disease and it needs to be treated
- 3:14Speaker 3: and people deserve to be treated with compassion.
- 3:16Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 3:16Speaker 2: And these drugs, my gosh.
- 3:18Speaker 1: You know, everyone's story is so different, but these drugs are,
- 3:21Speaker 1: are just, can be so strong and how they affect
- 3:24Speaker 1: people so differently. Like you said, can be crippling. And
- 3:28Speaker 1: how do we steer our kids away? You know, it's like, again,
- 3:32Speaker 1: everyone's story is so different, whether it starts when they're
- 3:34Speaker 1: younger or at some point while they're in school or
- 3:36Speaker 1: hanging out with the bad crowd, the wrong kind of
- 3:38Speaker 1: crowd or when they're older. But talk to me about
- 3:41Speaker 1: how you, you guys use the, you say substance use disorder, right?
- 3:46Speaker 2: Instead of saying drug addiction.
- 3:48Speaker 1: Talk about that verbiage, substance use disorder, as opposed to
- 3:52Speaker 1: just saying drug addiction or substance abuse.
- 3:55Speaker 3: Substance use disorder is a medical term, and it defines
- 3:59Speaker 3: the broader range of people who have lost their ability
- 4:03Speaker 3: to fully control their cravings. And it's the American Society
- 4:09Speaker 3: for Addiction Medicine. They have They look at how many
- 4:13Speaker 3: different factors you have that are impacting your life. And
- 4:17Speaker 3: so after a certain number of them, you have substance
- 4:19Speaker 3: use disorders diagnosed. The more extreme version or form of
- 4:25Speaker 3: substance use disorder is called addiction. It is very, very
- 4:29Speaker 3: difficult to heal from addiction if you're not getting medical care.
- 4:33Speaker 3: But there are many across the spectrum of substance use
- 4:36Speaker 3: disorder that could be hugely helped if If they receive care,
- 4:41Speaker 3: whether that was medication for opioid use disorder or whether
- 4:45Speaker 3: it's other treatment that's evidence-based for alcohol use disorder, but
- 4:50Speaker 3: there's great treatments. People need to do some homework to
- 4:55Speaker 3: find the treatment that's right for them. We have a
- 4:58Speaker 3: website called treatmentatlas.org. And on that website in California, you
- 5:03Speaker 3: can put in your zip code and see treatment facilities
- 5:07Speaker 3: that are near you that have high quality of care
- 5:10Speaker 3: that you can trust. And in fact, in California this
- 5:14Speaker 3: past year, 865,000 families used Treatment Atlas to find and
- 5:17Speaker 3: connect to quality care facilities. And it's such a relief
- 5:25Speaker 3: to know that you're going to connect to care that
- 5:27Speaker 3: is not going to either keep you in the system
- 5:31Speaker 3: or use practices that don't lead to recovery.
- 5:33Speaker 1: I mean, look, sad that we need it, but wow,
- 5:35Speaker 1: that's a lot of people who reached out. So I'm
- 5:37Speaker 1: going to write it down again. What's that website again, Pam?
- 5:40Speaker 2: Say the website.
- 5:41Speaker 3: It's treatmentatlas.org.
- 5:43Speaker 1: What happens when we go to that website? Now, we're
- 5:45Speaker 1: going to go to that website if we have a
- 5:47Speaker 1: loved one who is using and we need to get
- 5:50Speaker 1: them serious help. Not just a phone call, not a
- 5:53Speaker 1: therapy call, but we want to get serious.
- 5:55Speaker 2: We want to get them help. And this is where
- 5:57Speaker 2: we start.
- 5:57Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 5:58Speaker 3: And the greatest thing about when you go to treatmentatlas.org
- 6:01Speaker 3: is that the first thing you do is answer some
- 6:05Speaker 3: questions about what is the right level of care. Because
- 6:09Speaker 3: I think sometimes people think, oh, with addiction care, you
- 6:12Speaker 3: just go right into a residential program and you take
- 6:14Speaker 3: that time off. But there's many other ways in which
- 6:17Speaker 3: care is given. So depending on sort of where you
- 6:20Speaker 3: are in your journey with addiction, it may be that
- 6:23Speaker 3: what you just need is a more intensive outpatient care.
- 6:27Speaker 3: So when you answer the assessment, it'll give you a
- 6:31Speaker 3: good indication of what kind of care you need. And
- 6:33Speaker 3: then that can help you with your search when you
- 6:36Speaker 3: look to see what's in your area and then what
- 6:39Speaker 3: kind of care they give.
- 6:40Speaker 1: And again, Pam, Shatterproof is helping people with every kind
- 6:43Speaker 1: of addiction under the sun, whether it's from drugs, alcohol, cocaine, Oxycontin, fentanyl, oh,
- 6:50Speaker 1: which has just been so terrible. The fentanyl stories, wherever
- 6:53Speaker 1: it's coming from, however, people are getting their hands onto
- 6:56Speaker 1: these drugs, marijuana, painkillers, all this stuff affects everyone very differently.
- 7:01Speaker 1: And the hardcore drugs and alcohol can be really, really
- 7:05Speaker 1: bad for you and very scary things can happen. And
- 7:07Speaker 1: that's why Shatterproof is here today.
- 7:09Speaker 2: To help.
- 7:10Speaker 1: I love how you get the word out and your
- 7:12Speaker 1: messaging on the Shutterproof Instagram account. Addiction is not about
- 7:16Speaker 1: a lack of willpower. It's so much bigger than that.
- 7:18Speaker 1: And when you hear that messaging, right, you're just talking
- 7:21Speaker 1: about next level care through your organization, next level helping people.
- 7:25Speaker 1: It's not just a choice in so many cases, right?
- 7:29Speaker 1: The addiction grip it can be so strong.
- 7:32Speaker 2: It's a medical level. It's not a choice anymore.
- 7:35Speaker 1: You need bigger help than just choosing to stop.
- 7:38Speaker 3: That's right. Your brain actually changes. I mean, that's the
- 7:43Speaker 3: unbelievable thing that happens and people don't realize that it
- 7:48Speaker 3: affects your cravings. And actually, we've seen that now with GLP-1s, right?
- 7:52Speaker 3: Now we have a drug for for overweight, for obesity
- 7:55Speaker 3: that actually reduces, that affects that part of your brain
- 7:59Speaker 3: that controls your cravings. And so many people are now
- 8:04Speaker 3: losing weight, getting healthier, less likely to have heart disease,
- 8:07Speaker 3: less likely to have diabetes because they're able to use
- 8:11Speaker 3: that medication to help them with those cravings. And that
- 8:15Speaker 3: it's a very, you know, it's a physical thing that's
- 8:16Speaker 3: happening in your brain. And so people need treatment to
- 8:21Speaker 3: address that. And yeah, there's many, you know, there's different
- 8:24Speaker 3: types of substance use disorder. I think, you know, part
- 8:27Speaker 3: of what we're doing also is we're trying to prevent
- 8:31Speaker 3: overdose and prevent addiction before it starts. So getting naloxone,
- 8:36Speaker 3: otherwise known as Narcan, We're trying to get that in
- 8:39Speaker 3: every school, in every workplace, in every bus station, to
- 8:42Speaker 3: have it as ubiquitous everywhere, just like fire extinguishers are
- 8:48Speaker 3: or defibrillators for heart disease. Because addiction is affecting and
- 8:53Speaker 3: overdose is affecting people in their 20s and their 30s
- 8:56Speaker 3: and their 40s and they're in the workplace. These are
- 9:00Speaker 3: Our friends, our brothers, our sisters, our children who are
- 9:05Speaker 3: working and we want to make sure that people have
- 9:08Speaker 3: quick access to Narcan or Naloxone if something were to happen.
- 9:13Speaker 3: But we're also looking to prevent addiction before it starts.
- 9:16Speaker 3: So we're passing laws. to try to regulate some of
- 9:20Speaker 3: the substances like kratom and all these synthetics that are
- 9:23Speaker 3: coming out now and their manufacturers are finding ways to
- 9:27Speaker 3: manufacture drugs faster than we're able to kind of keep
- 9:30Speaker 3: up with it. So parents have to be so diligent.
- 9:34Speaker 3: It's so awful. And we all have heard, I think
- 9:37Speaker 3: one pill can kill with fentanyl, how one just bad
- 9:42Speaker 3: decision can lead to tragic circumstances. So people need to
- 9:46Speaker 3: be so mindful and watchful, be careful what you put
- 9:50Speaker 3: in your body, but also some of the products that
- 9:54Speaker 3: look like they're health products that are made from kratom
- 9:57Speaker 3: can be very addictive And a lot of the physicians
- 10:03Speaker 3: we're talking to are saying they're seeing, and emergency rooms too,
- 10:06Speaker 3: are seeing far, far more people who have become addicted
- 10:09Speaker 3: to these synthetics. So that's the other thing parents need
- 10:12Speaker 3: to be mindful of.
- 10:13Speaker 1: And it sounds like you, Shadowproof, are trying to be
- 10:15Speaker 1: educational in that realm too, like teaching people what's out there.
- 10:18Speaker 1: Every time I go on Instagram, they want to sell
- 10:20Speaker 1: me something. Instagram, you know, they're trying to sell you.
- 10:22Speaker 1: I don't know what's in that.
- 10:24Speaker 3: Right.
- 10:24Speaker 2: They're saying, take this for your liver.
- 10:25Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 10:25Speaker 2: Take these pills, these supplements. This will be better for
- 10:28Speaker 2: your this or that.
- 10:29Speaker 1: Just because you're wearing a doctor's outfit on Instagram trying
- 10:31Speaker 1: to make some money doesn't mean I should put that
- 10:33Speaker 1: into my body.
- 10:34Speaker 3: Yeah. People just have to be so much more careful
- 10:37Speaker 3: now because of that. Right. You don't know what's in
- 10:39Speaker 3: that now.
- 10:39Speaker 1: You know who I think everyone needs? They need a
- 10:42Speaker 1: dad like my dad. My father was an undercover narcotics cop.
- 10:46Speaker 1: in Oakland, Northern California.
- 10:47Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh.
- 10:49Speaker 1: And so, no, the good thing is my dad was
- 10:51Speaker 1: the guy who would go around to schools with the
- 10:54Speaker 1: little case that would open up and show kids what
- 10:57Speaker 1: all these dirty little things looked like. And, And essentially
- 11:00Speaker 1: he scared us so well. I've never done drug in
- 11:03Speaker 1: my life. He scared me, scared us so much that
- 11:07Speaker 1: we were too afraid. He's like, how do you know
- 11:09Speaker 1: when you take this, you don't think you can fly?
- 11:11Speaker 2: Can you jump off a building? Can you fly? Can
- 11:13Speaker 2: you actually fly?
- 11:14Speaker 1: This white stuff or this little glump of brown stuff
- 11:17Speaker 1: or this, this pill, you can't trust what you're getting
- 11:20Speaker 1: from other people, from strangers. They want to make money.
- 11:24Speaker 1: When you put it in your body, it can make
- 11:25Speaker 1: you do crazy things. So that him saying all this stuff,
- 11:29Speaker 1: We've never tried a drug, my brother and I, our
- 11:33Speaker 1: whole life.
- 11:34Speaker 2: So all these years later, I'm like, thank you, dad,
- 11:36Speaker 2: for being a cop.
- 11:38Speaker 1: But also as a narcotics undercover cop, you know, he
- 11:41Speaker 1: saw people on drugs and saw terrible things and people
- 11:45Speaker 1: are on drugs. And you think you have superpowers and
- 11:48Speaker 1: you hurt yourself, you hurt others and bad things can unfold.
- 11:52Speaker 1: So like you're saying, Shadowproof tries to stop it before
- 11:55Speaker 1: it starts. And then, okay, if the grip has been gripped,
- 11:58Speaker 1: if the grip is there, let's get you into a
- 12:00Speaker 1: proper way to get this thing out of your body
- 12:03Speaker 1: and out of your brain and help you stay alive
- 12:05Speaker 1: for you and your family and help you get a
- 12:07Speaker 1: new start at life. And don't let the drugs take
- 12:10Speaker 1: it all away. The drugs can take it all away.
- 12:12Speaker 3: Yeah. And I think just for all of us who
- 12:15Speaker 3: know a family that has somebody, if it's you or
- 12:19Speaker 3: someone you love who has a substance use disorder, just
- 12:24Speaker 3: treating each other with compassion and recognizing for a lot
- 12:28Speaker 3: of people, they're doing the best they can, or in
- 12:31Speaker 3: some cases, they're so embarrassed by it because they're going
- 12:34Speaker 3: to be judged. And so they're just keeping it, you know,
- 12:37Speaker 3: keeping it a secret, not really sharing what's going on
- 12:41Speaker 3: in their lives. And that's a really sad thing. When
- 12:44Speaker 3: you think about any other disease, people share with their friends,
- 12:47Speaker 3: their friends know what they're going through. They're going, you know,
- 12:50Speaker 3: through some really tough physical things. And with drugs and alcohol,
- 12:54Speaker 3: people are, they don't want to admit that they've got
- 12:57Speaker 3: this problem.
- 12:58Speaker 2: There's a shame. But look, ultimately, it's going to come
- 13:02Speaker 2: out because you can't hide those behaviors, right? Ultimately, it's
- 13:05Speaker 2: going to come out.
- 13:05Speaker 3: Yeah. Eventually, it usually does. Although, interestingly, even when I
- 13:11Speaker 3: became the CEO of Shatterproof, people that I had known
- 13:14Speaker 3: and worked with before, some of them shared with me
- 13:17Speaker 3: stories that I had no idea. I had no idea
- 13:19Speaker 3: that their father had died of of cirrhosis or alcohol.
- 13:23Speaker 3: I didn't realize that they had children who were in
- 13:26Speaker 3: treatment in college, et cetera. So I do think we
- 13:30Speaker 3: want to create safe spaces. Our walk at Griffith Park
- 13:33Speaker 3: on Saturday, November 7th, part of that, we bring people together,
- 13:38Speaker 3: not just to raise money, but it's really to create
- 13:40Speaker 3: community and support and And to be around people who
- 13:45Speaker 3: will care about each other. And we have a slogan
- 13:47Speaker 3: that we've been saying, love people loudly. Like part of
- 13:50Speaker 3: it is just be there and say, we get you.
- 13:53Speaker 3: You know, we got you. And we care. And showing
- 13:57Speaker 3: that support is just so big.
- 14:01Speaker 1: So at your walk, by the way, Saturday, November the 7th,
- 14:03Speaker 1: the Shatterproof Walk to End Addiction event.
- 14:06Speaker 2: At Griffith Park.
- 14:06Speaker 1: All the info at shatterproof.org for more. The site opens
- 14:10Speaker 1: at 8. Official walk program starts at 9.30. And folks
- 14:13Speaker 1: coming together and walking for all kinds of reasons. Talk
- 14:17Speaker 1: about the honor wall displaying photos of loved ones and,
- 14:22Speaker 1: you know, right, probably people wearing t-shirts or signs, carrying
- 14:26Speaker 1: signs with photos in honor of someone who that they
- 14:29Speaker 1: sadly may have lost to addiction or someone who's in
- 14:32Speaker 1: recovery or someone that they're celebrating or people who are
- 14:34Speaker 1: sober celebrating their sobriety.
- 14:36Speaker 3: It is really hard. And I talk to family members
- 14:39Speaker 3: almost every day. Honestly, I feel like our walk creates
- 14:44Speaker 3: a certain spirit of support and almost celebration, recognizing these things.
- 14:50Speaker 3: you know, their, their family members, their loved ones, we're
- 14:53Speaker 3: not forgetting them. We're remembering them and they're, they're taking
- 14:57Speaker 3: action in their memory and that's empowering. Um, but we,
- 15:02Speaker 3: you know, we help people getting picked, you know, create
- 15:05Speaker 3: lanyards with pictures of their loved ones. And a lot
- 15:08Speaker 3: of people are come to our walks to honor somebody
- 15:10Speaker 3: that they've loved, um, and lost, And that is a
- 15:15Speaker 3: powerful and emotional thing for sure. And we create very
- 15:19Speaker 3: respectful places for that at the same time that we
- 15:23Speaker 3: want everyone there to feel empowered, to feel supported, to
- 15:26Speaker 3: feel good, and to recognize recovery is possible. We need
- 15:31Speaker 3: to support each other and just end the stigma that
- 15:33Speaker 3: gets in the way of people getting the care they
- 15:36Speaker 3: need and deserve. Yep.
- 15:37Speaker 1: And you're all about offering that care or helping people
- 15:40Speaker 1: take the steps to get the proper care that they need.
- 15:42Speaker 1: It's Shutterproof.org for all the information. And then Pam, you're
- 15:45Speaker 1: going to be there on.
- 15:46Speaker 2: The 7th, right? You'll be there?
- 15:47Speaker 3: I will be there.
- 15:48Speaker 2: You'll be there.
- 15:49Speaker 1: And then people can sign up. It's free to sign up, right?
- 15:51Speaker 1: It's so easy to get registered right there at Shutterproof.org
- 15:53Speaker 1: as well.
- 15:54Speaker 2: Easy to sign up.
- 15:55Speaker 3: Anybody can come. Yep. Yep. Anyone can come.
- 15:58Speaker 2: Half of someone that you love.
- 15:59Speaker 1: If you have a story, you want to be a
- 16:00Speaker 1: part of this organization or just be a part of
- 16:03Speaker 1: what's being done to help people. I mean, we see
- 16:05Speaker 1: it so much in our You know, in our homeless
- 16:07Speaker 1: situation here in Southern California, it's just off the charts.
- 16:10Speaker 1: There's a lot of people that need help. So this
- 16:12Speaker 1: just calls more attention to the fact that help is available.
- 16:15Speaker 1: We just have to help guide people to it and
- 16:18Speaker 1: help them shift their life and live a life that
- 16:22Speaker 1: could be drug and alcohol free.
- 16:24Speaker 2: It's possible. And the help is here.
- 16:26Speaker 3: Yeah. Just this week, we just launched a family guide
- 16:31Speaker 3: to getting care. And it has one of the questions
- 16:35Speaker 3: that you should ask. when you're facing the situation where
- 16:39Speaker 3: somebody you love needs to get treatment. And that guide
- 16:44Speaker 3: is available on shatterproof.org. So come and download that and
- 16:49Speaker 3: share it with somebody that you know or love as well,
- 16:52Speaker 3: because we just want to be sure people feel that
- 16:55Speaker 3: support from the community and from families and are able
- 16:59Speaker 3: to get the care they need.
- 17:00Speaker 1: And to know, yeah, to know that you're not alone
- 17:02Speaker 1: and to know that real help is available. And these
- 17:04Speaker 1: folks want to help you get there. You know, you
- 17:07Speaker 1: or someone that you know and love who might be
- 17:08Speaker 1: struggling with this. Any kind of drug or alcohol addiction,
- 17:11Speaker 1: Shatterproof wants to help you.
- 17:13Speaker 2: They're coming together.
- 17:13Speaker 1: The 7th Annual Shatterproof Walk to End Addiction. In LA
- 17:17Speaker 1: next Saturday, November the 7th, Griffith Park.
- 17:19Speaker 2: All the info.
- 17:20Speaker 1: Get signed up and come meet some amazing people, including
- 17:22Speaker 1: my girl, Pam Jenkins, their CEO. All the info to
- 17:25Speaker 1: shatterproof.org for more. Pam, thank you so much. We want
- 17:29Speaker 1: to see you out there next Saturday and come give
- 17:31Speaker 1: you a big hug.
- 17:31Speaker 3: I can't wait to see you. Please come. And the
- 17:34Speaker 3: walk-in still starts at 10 o'clock, so be there by then.