Q&A
Family support services for overdose fatality survivors
1:21:40
ยท
3 min
Council Member Lynn Schulman inquires about the family support services offered to overdose fatality survivors. Robert Van Pelt and Hannah Johnson from OCME provide detailed information on these services.
- The DIG team takes a person-centered approach, offering grief support and assistance with various needs
- Social workers with diverse expertise in areas such as veteran services, family counseling, substance use disorders, and housing provide support
- Services include financial assistance, housing support, childcare help, and mental health referrals
- The team connects families to specialized grief counseling and support groups that understand the unique challenges of overdose-related loss
Lynn Schulman
1:21:40
No.
1:21:40
That's that's great.
1:21:43
The family support services, the city has indicated that some settlement funds help OCME offer grief support or referrals to survivors after an overdose fatality.
1:21:51
Can you describe these services in more detail and explain how you coordinate with other agencies or community groups to provide ongoing assistance?
Robert Van Pelt
1:22:00
Yes.
1:22:00
Our social workers have a have a a a person focused, way of doing things.
1:22:07
They have a a a wide range of expertise in veteran services, in in family counseling, in substance abuse, in substance use, substance use disorder, in children, in, housing.
1:22:23
And so altogether, that helps out with, families.
1:22:27
I'd like to also turn, this to my colleague Hannah Johnson who could speak in more detail to the DIG.
Lynn Schulman
1:22:33
Can I just,
Mercedes Narcisse
1:22:34
okay?
1:22:34
Thank you.
Hannah Johnson
1:22:36
Yeah.
1:22:37
Hello.
1:22:37
I'm Hannah.
1:22:38
I'm the program manager for the Drug Intelligence and Intervention Group, so the DIG team.
1:22:43
And so to say a little bit more about the services that we offer, we do take a person centered approach.
1:22:48
So our when we call families, we say, you know, I'm so sorry for your loss.
1:22:52
And then we just ask, how are you doing?
1:22:55
And honestly, even that is a really powerful intervention for a lot of people in that, they're often taken aback that the government is calling them asking them how they're doing.
1:23:04
And they often kind of we hear regularly from families that they they say, wow.
1:23:09
Like, no one has asked me this.
1:23:10
No one has asked me how I'm doing.
1:23:11
Because everyone around them is grieving as well.
1:23:14
Right.
1:23:15
And so having a person to talk to and to to process with is often really helpful.
1:23:20
So that's why we have social workers making these calls, is because that means that we can be providing that grief support in real time.
1:23:26
We don't have to make a referral.
1:23:28
You've got your social worker on the phone.
1:23:30
And we when we assign cases, we assign cases to the social worker, and then they do the outreach, and they are responsible for that, client from the beginning.
1:23:40
So it's not just, like, call hotline, get a social worker.
1:23:43
It's Mhmm.
1:23:43
Call Vanessa.
1:23:44
You get her on her cell phone.
1:23:47
She's the one that calls you.
1:23:48
You call her back and all of that.
1:23:49
So we take a really person centered approach.
1:23:51
We and and that means that we we ask them what they need and then we try to help them with that.
1:23:56
And that means that it can a lot of times people are dealing with, the the the reverberations of losing somebody in their in their family.
1:24:05
So that might mean that they have less income as a family.
1:24:07
That might mean that their housing is all of a sudden unstable.
1:24:11
They may need to move.
1:24:12
They may need childcare.
1:24:14
There's lots of different ways that this loss is disruptive kind of operationally within the family.
1:24:20
And so we will try to help them with those things.
1:24:22
We work really closely often to get families things like one shot deals so that they don't lose their housing.
1:24:29
We work really closely with them on, like, a whole host of issues that come up.
1:24:35
I would say that it it is often those kinds of needs that come up, those financial, short shortfalls that happen after a death.
1:24:44
Both you are dealing with the expenses, that come with somebody dying and you're dealing with, like, a loss of income for your household.
1:24:52
You know, so we we work with families on that.
1:24:56
And then, obviously, we make a lot of mental health referrals, for people both refer both our social workers can continue to check-in on them and see how they're doing.
1:25:04
We connect people to, grief counseling, both individual and groups.
1:25:09
I think in overdose, in particular, it's a really stigmatized type of loss.
1:25:13
A lot of people feel a lot of shame and isolation.
1:25:16
And if they go to a a standard grief group, sometimes they'll be turned away Mhmm.
1:25:21
Because of the you know, people say this this type of loss is too different.
1:25:25
We can't help you here.
1:25:27
And so, we work really hard to make sure that we're getting people connected to resources and grief groups that that understand the specifics of this type of loss.