Dozens of health care workers, government workers and people whose lives are affected by substance use disorders gathered at Pinecliff Park on Saturday to celebrate National Recovery Month.
National Recovery Month was established in 1989 by the Department of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services to raise public awareness of the resources and treatments available to those struggling with addiction.
County Adult Recovery Services Manager Jeffrey Thompson said the Frederick County Department of Health has been organizing annual events honoring the recovery community for more than a decade.
Thompson defines recovery as “a process of change that improves an individual’s health.” He said the recovery process is neither linear nor one-size-fits-all.
Saturday’s event featured numerous speakers, including county sheriff Jessica Fitzwater and Maryland’s first special commissioner for opioids, Emily Keller.
In his speech, Keller said the number of fatal overdoses in the state was trending downward after a spike at the height of the 2021 COVID-19 pandemic, preliminary data show. said. Still, there is still much work to be done, he said.
According to the Maryland Overdose Data Dashboard, 60 people died from overdoses in Frederick County between March 2022 and March 2023.
Many in the recovery community say stigma around drug use contributes to these deaths.
Tony Schanholtz is a Maryland Certified Peer Recovery Specialist and a self-proclaimed syringe addict recoverer from Hagerstown. His journey to recovery began in 2019 when his kidneys failed due to heroin use.
“In my view, the opposite of addiction is connection,” Schanholtz says. “Instead of ostracizing or excluding people like me, we should get them more involved in society. That will help people recover.”
Saturday’s event was represented by several organizations working to help people recover, including Narcotics Anonymous and the Frederick County Mental Health Association.
One of the county’s StreetSafe Program groups, which provides ham-reduction tools such as sterile needles and first aid kits, provided training on naloxone at Saturday’s event. Naloxone is a drug that can reverse opioid overdoses and buy patients time to seek emergency care.
Jennifer Kalapaka, a registered nurse who works with the Safe Streets program, said carrying naloxone is becoming more important as fentanyl becomes more prevalent in street drugs.
In addition to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid much more potent than heroin, street drugs often contain the animal tranquilizer xylazine, Kalapaka says, which can cause skin scarring in people who inject the drug. said to be able to cause
Kalapaka said the harm of fentanyl and xylazine can be mitigated through good wound care, safer injection practices and rapid analysis of the substance, all from the Safe Street Program office on Prospect Boulevard. said to have access.
Schanholtz emphasized the importance of stable housing, employment opportunities and mental health support in achieving and sustaining recovery.
“The more we tear down these barriers, the more resilient people will be,” he said. “I’m just trying to reach out and encourage people who are struggling to reach out. There are a lot of people who are really worried.”