AMUDIM Awareness Event 12-14-2016 Part 1 of 5 Zvi Gluck

I'm confident that this evening is going to prove both to be educational and informative and most of all help us break the stigma which is associated with addiction and to show the world that this epidemic is one that is here and it's no longer going to be brushed under the rug what we're going to try to do is to prevent treat and save lives of those that need it regardless of what those around us feel and think and really seeing the turnout here tonight shows that the tide is changing and that's a real thank you to everyone who came out and to show your support so thank you all very much for that we all know the dangers of the dangers of addiction but are we as a community doing enough is it ever enough what more can we do and is there anything that we can be doing differently of course the answer to that in many ways is yes and it's rallying the support of our schools our institutions our abin leadership our community leaders to waking up in real realizing that this is a problem and it's a problem that is destroying lives every single day and we as a whole have to agree to get together and do whatever we can to stop it by coming here we're taking the first steps and with the help from above we'll be able to continue doing so sadly in the last 15 months we have lost 90 members of our community due to this illness most of them young men and women who had their entire lives ahead of them many were young married men and women and some were even older the oldest that we've dealt with was in their 50s we see that drugs and substance abuse does not discriminate not against race religion gender or any other group it is an equal opportunity offender and killer tonight you're going to hear from Mrs Rebecca glasman who sadly lost her son to this disease she's going to explain from her perspective and you're going to hear from manim pisanski who works every day with people in recovery to help them achieve their goals and is doing a great job at that as well one of the main challenges that we have in this arena is the shame and stigma that's associated and that is the main purpose of why we are pushing so hard to bring about these events and to make these changes this is something that families communities and friends all have to deal with collectively and we have to do so in a way to let people know that they can ask for help and that help is available people should should not be ashamed and if we know someone who needs help we should be able to be comfortable enough to offer step up to the plate and say hey let's do what we can we're here for you we have to be aware of who's around us and support them specifically many times when you go to an event a social event a Simka or even in sh you'll be sitting next to somebody someone's going to take out a bottle to make a and the guy next to you may say nah I don't want to drink the worst thing anybody can do is say oh come on just take one drink we're here we're all together you never know why that person next to you is refusing it and you never know if by the social pressures and peer pressures might bring those people back to the dark place that they fought so hard to get out of so people really need to be aware of their surroundings and be aware that these are real problems that we have to face every single day the other thing that is extremely important and you're going to hear more about this tonight is how we have to care for people that are suffering from this and be supportive studies clearly show and you're going to hear this I think is going to talk about this in detail that people that are going through addiction when they have family and communal support have a much higher rate of success than those are than those that are left to fend for themselves and that support goes a long way and many times it's hard and it's difficult and you know again going back to the stigma the embarrassment the family situation but we have to remember this is saving lives this is no different than when I go as a paramedic to help save a life or when the fire department goes to put out a fire this is the same thing we are all here to save lives and this is what's important if someone shows that they're ashamed or even has it internally of a loved one it resonates and the people feel it and when somebody who needs help feels that they're bringing shame upon themselves or their family they're not going to want to get that help and that's really what we have to try to change finishing rehab going to sober living and extensive Outpatient Treatment is really important but it's also at that time that people are completing those phases that more than ever they need additional support making sure that people are going to their meetings have a sponsor have a job have a school have something to be productive making sure that people in recovery have a reason and a meaning to live will give them the ability to grow and get stronger it's also important to note that over 80% of the people that we've kept tally of that passed away from this disease are people that were sober for 3 months or longer and for one reason or another something triggered them and they relapsed and they felt that they had nowhere to turn and went back to dealing with their pain the best way they knew how now the clinical reason behind this is that when somebody uses drugs their body builds up a tolerance to it and they then need a higher dose to achieve the same high but when people get sober and get clean the body builds up the resistance back to where it was pre the drug days and what ends up happening is when somebody Unfortunately relapses they go back to the most recent dose that they knew got them the desired effect and that becomes a deadly deadly combination and that is why it's so important that we're here tonight and why we have lad that's here that's going to educate Us in what Naran is what it can do and how it can save lives and I can tell you both pre the P you know it being given to the public as a paramedic how many lives it saved and we know now from the street we keep hearing numbers and it's interesting to note that it's actually saving more lives than defibrillators but I can guarantee you that everyone here in their Sho Social Hall school or other place where they go to there's defibrillators there we have to do the same thing and make sure that we get Naran readily available wherever it may be needed so the truth is it's it's my hope that we no longer have to have any of these events and that this is something that we can say we've overcome and we're done with it but until then we're going to keep fighting the good fight and we're going to do so with the support of everybody and all the organizations and people that are here so that we can continue to do this saving one life at a time um I'd like to just make mention I see that Dr Lightman came in thank you so much another support no please a round of applause it's important to note that in this community Dr Lightman in a very very prestigious position being a very very popular pediatrician really has undertaken this and written articles about it even when it wasn't popular and that's extremely important that people know that we have that and that we're going to continue to get the support of the medical community as well as the rabina community as well as the entire community so really thank you all for coming and we're going to start with the program and again with one life at a time that's what we're here for and we'll just keep going thank you so much