Staying Afloat

Last month, we were contacted by Kensington resident Roz Pichardo, who has reversed more than 100 overdoses.

After experiencing a series of traumatic overdose reversals, Pichardo asked us to focus on the trauma experienced by those who carry naloxone — an opioid overdose reversal medication — and regularly respond to overdoses in the neighborhood. So we did.

If you’re reading this, there’s no need to explain to you that Kensington has a very public addiction and overdose crisis — the media have certainly not left that story untold. But several community members, like Roz, expressed to us that the wellbeing of those who respond to these crises on a weekly or daily basis is often overlooked — and we couldn’t agree more.

We hope that the stories we’ve included in this issue are just the start of a much bigger conversation about trauma in the neighborhood. Most importantly, we hope that together the community can help people like Roz stay afloat and that together we can begin to heal.