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A DBHIDS watch party and discussion with the filmmakers of this powerful short production took place at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 31 — International Overdose Awareness Day.
Special remarks by:
Guest speakers include:
The Crisis in Philadelphia
Philadelphia is facing the greatest public health crisis in a century. Every neighborhood in the city is being hit hard by an epidemic of opioid use and overdose. Across all racial and ethnic groups, the number of deaths from drug overdose is catastophic.
The City is working to save lives, improve access to help, and reverse the negative effects opioids have had on our communities. Learn more: Combating the Opioid Epidemic: Fighting back agains the crisis in Philadelphia
About the film
So, what are opioids?
That’s what Richard Patterson Jr. asked his mentors, El Sawyer and Jon Kaufman, after leaving the Pennsylvania Reentry Coalition at the State Capitol building in Harrisburg.
Rich, who finished a three-year prison sentence in 2013, took part in the SHOOTERS program: a media development program for formerly incarcerated individuals. Working with Sawyer and Kaufman at SHOOTERS introduced him to digital media and fueled an aspiration for filmmaking. Hungry for his first project, Rich explored issues plaguing his own neighborhood. When he learned opioids are found in prescription medications such as Percocet, or “Percs” as he calls them, he knew there was an opportunity for a bigger story. He figured most people he grew up with probably never heard the word opioid, thus the idea for the film was conceptualized.
”It’s confusing to me because the way the news media shows it, all you see is white people living in tents under train stations. At the time, it didn’t seem like a Black issue at all!”
Rich soon learned there was a lack of awareness within his own community around the language of the opioid crisis. If the messaging around the drug isn’t clear to the people in his community, the understanding of getting help isn’t either. From his research, he founds the biggest issue is that counterfeit pills look exactly like prescription “Xanies” (Xanax) and “Percs” but are laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. Fentanyl is like morphine, but the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) warns it’s 50 to 100 times more powerful. Nearly 67 percent of opioid overdose deaths in 2019 included fentanyl. Considering that fentanyl is now found in more and more illicit substances, the number of overdoses is likely to increase.
The goal of this documentary film is to start a national conversation about the language of the opioid crisis and to use it as a tool to spread awareness of the epidemic to Black communities. In collaboration with Seven Halsema, a teacher at SHOOTERS and experienced filmmaker from the Netherlands, Rich engaged in community research and drafted a film script. Not long after, they found themselves interviewing people in Rich’s North Philadelphia neighborhood to gauge the knowledge of opioids among the people he grew up with.
”More people can tell you where to get some ‘Percs’ than where they can get into recovery.”
Upon starting their interviews, they quickly discovered that most people had no clue about the relationship between commonly used pills and opioids. If they did, the stigma around addiction kept them from openly talking about it. A rare case was found in James Rivers, who lost his sister to an opioid-related overdose and included her cause of death in her obituary. Rivers is a vocal advocate in the community and talks about his experience in the film. Through personal stories told by people like Rivers, this short documentary film takes a closer look inside black communities and offers clarity and help for individuals and communities dealing with opioid related addiction. As Rich states: ”It can be the difference in getting help or getting left behind. It can be the difference in life or death.”
Biographies
Richard Patterson Jr. — Multi-talented artist
Richard Patterson Jr. grew up in the streets of North Philadelphia. After being incarcerated and then released in 2013, he forged a new path for himself through video and filmmaking. In 2015, he attended a fledgling program named SHOOTERS, headed by his long-time mentors, El Sawyer and Jon Kaufman. During his time in the program, he learned the craft of filmmaking and created his own work. In 2019, he received a grant from the Doc Society to work on decoding the language of the opioid crisis and the cultural differences and inequalities it reveals. As an artist and aspiring documentary filmmaker, Rich seeks to tell stories about human experiences, rarely heard by those outside his community by starting a conversation about issues barely discussed inside his community.
Seven Halsema — Accomplished filmmaker
Seven Halsema was born and raised in Amsterdam. He studied educational science and successfully graduated from the School of Audio Engineering. He worked for some of the biggest post-production companies in the Netherlands on productions such as ‘The Voice.’’ He made his transition to the United States in 2012 to pursue documentary filmmaking. Much of his work was alongside co-founders El Sawyer and Jon Kaufman focusing on social justice related issues. Their first release was the successfully acclaimed documentary “Pull of Gravity,” which focuses on mass incarceration and recidivism. It received critical acclaim by President Barack Obama during his televised NAACP speech in 2015.
Since that time, Seven produced a variety of projects, throughout the United States and Europe, and mentored previously incarcerated individuals in filmmaking and journalism.
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Home | The City’s Response | About Opioids
Treatment | Harm Reduction | Reports & Data
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The Bupe Works campaign uses billboards, transit stations, social media, and other high-visibility tactics to drive Philadelphians contemplating treatment into a single form of Medication-Assisted Treatment that’s highly effective and convenient to take every day. It showcases a diversity of faces, voices and stories of relatable Philadelphians who attribute their recovery to this particular medication, provides an immediate and local call to action for people who need help or know someone who does and features both a quick and memorable tagline and website.
Video
By Alicia Vitarelli
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Officials call it nothing short of a lifesaver, and Wednesday city officials offered anyone who lives in Philadelphia free training on how to use Narcan.
Narcan is the brand name of the drug used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
Overdoses are skyrocketing and officials want everyone to have the tools and skills to save a life.
The city’s behavioral health department offered education about the epidemic, the drug and access to Narcan. They also gave a hands on demonstration on how to administer Narcan. The goal was simple: combating the crisis one person at a time.
“A lot of people are faced with this crisis in their own households,” said Pamela McClenton of the Department of Behavioral Health. “This is a way for us to destigmatize the opioid substance use disorder and treatment.”
Narcan can be purchased over-the-counter at drug stores in Philadelphia, you do not need a prescription.
Officials said it can reverse a fatal overdose almost immediately, and restore breathing within two to eight minutes.
Kennedy Health in Berlin, Camden County is tackling the opioid epidemic in New Jersey.
Medical experts spent the day discussing the crisis and the efforts to fight it.
U-S Congressman Donald Norcross was the opening speaker and Tony Luke, the cheesesteak franchise founder, shared his emotional story after his son recently died from a heroin overdose.
PHILADELPHIA, PA (WTXF) – As the country continues to grapple with the opioid epidemic, many view overdose reversal medication as an essential tool to fight back.
Some counselors, like Rick Tull of Philadelphia’s Office of Behavioral Health, believe making these drugs more accessible deserves consideration.
“With all the people who passed, including the three people who passed in Philadelphia last night, I think it’s appropriate to have a moment of silence,” he says.
Wednesday was one in a series of events hosted by the city to get the message out that residents must be prepared to save a life when the moment calls for it. Participants heard Tull present the staggering statistics.
“Every day, 100 people will die from opioid overdoses nationwide, [with] at least three to four in Philadelphia alone,” he said.
But it honestly wasn’t the stats that made the biggest impact, it was the attendees..
Elvis Rosado works in addiction prevention and demonstrated Narcan because he knows firsthand its impact.
“The agency staff has reversed over 200 people. By myself, as of last week, I’m at 37 people,” he told FOX 29’s Bill Anderson.
Onzie Travis is a counselor who shocked attendees with his sincerity when he explained only one person he worked with died from drug use.
“Some people I’ve worked with have overdosed,” he said. “Fortunately, only one of them passed away. The others were revived.”
Health worker Allison Herens administered Narcan following a training session less than 24 hours after purchasing it.
“I purchased Narcan the day before, and when I got to Somerset Station a man on the platform overdosed and I reversed him,” she said.
Whether making Narcan more accessible makes users more likely to continue abusing opioids, the training sessions made a simple point clear. While we debate the merits of these overdose reversal drugs, we should save lives while we do it.
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