Windsor-Essex opioid awareness campaign aims to bring community together, end stigma

A month-long community-led campaign for families whose loved ones have died from the opioid crisis began Saturday. 

You Are Not Alone!, organized by Reaching for the Stars Optimist Club of Windsor Essex County, aims to raise awareness for the opioid crisis and offer a space for family, friends and community members to gather and remember loved ones who have died because of it. 

"The crisis that has taken over has been unbelievable. If it hasn't hit your backyard, you don't know what is really happening," said Melissa Nespolon, charter president of Reaching for the Stars Optimist Club. 

Each Saturday in August, community members are invited to gather at All Saints Anglican Church to place a cross for each person who has died. 

The campaign is supported by Pozitive Pathways, Brentwood, Canadian Mental Health Association and Grieving Families.

Nespolon is one of the campaign's organizers. Last year, her brother Joe Newman, 34, died from an opioid overdose. His cross was the first one planted on Saturday. 

"He was just that guy. When he was on, he was on," Nespolon said. 

Newman was a registered practical nurse, father of two sons and struggled with an opioid addiction. According to Nespolon, Newman had completed a residential treatment program six weeks before he died, but after returning to the community he could not access the out-patient support to help him fight his addiction. 

"We need more help, more education, more support," Nespolon said.  "We're losing too many people and we haven't put enough focus on it."

Last year, Windsor-Essex hit a record 348 overdoses and 64 people died. In 2019, there were 249 overdoses and 48 deaths. 

'There is such a stigma'

"I just want people to know that we've lost way too many people to this because they can't figure out how to get out of the cycle," said Nespolon.

Denise Romanovich, campaign manager of Reaching for the Stars Optimist Club, said she wishes more people felt comfortable asking for support. 

"What bothers me is there is such a stigma to having to admit they need help," Romanovich said. "We have to accept who we are as individuals to move forward."