Abstract
North America’s overdose crisis is an urgent public health issue that has resulted in thousands of deaths. As the crisis began to take hold across Canada in 2016, bereaved parents, mainly mothers, emerged as vocal advocates for drug policy reform and harm reduction, using their stories to challenge the stigma of drug-related death. In 2017, we launched a qualitative research partnership with leading family organizations in Canada, conducting interviews with 43 mothers whose children had died from substance use, to understand their experiences of drug policy advocacy. Our findings showed that participants’ motivations for engaging in advocacy were rooted in their experiences of grief, and that advocacy led to feelings of empowerment and connection to others. Our research suggests that advocacy can be cathartic and associated with healing from grief, but that “going public” in sharing a family story of substance use death can also have a considerable personal cost.
Highlights
The overdose crisis has been described as one of the most urgent and challenging public health issues of our time (Alpert et al, 2019; Tyndall, 2018)
Three volunteer advocacy organizations representing families who have been impacted by substance use in Canada are Moms Stop the Harm (MSTH; est. 2016), Moms United and Mandated to Saving the Lives of Drug Users, and The Voice of the Family
The political advocacy of both groups is unique due to its outspoken support for harm reduction philosophy and interventions, an approach that seeks to minimize the harms associated with substance use while supporting individuals who may not want to abstain from drug use (Kerr & Ti, 2013)
Summary
The overdose crisis has been described as one of the most urgent and challenging public health issues of our time (Alpert et al, 2019; Tyndall, 2018). MSTH and mumsDU use various methods to advocate for drug policy reform, including public speaking, organizing public protests, media engagement, meetings with policymakers and politicians, and working collaboratively with researchers to advance evidencebased drug policy reform. Both grassroots volunteer organizations were initially created to advocate for family members who have lost a loved one to substance use, but have since expanded to provide peer support for individuals whose loved ones have died or are currently experiencing substance-related problems. The political advocacy of both groups is unique due to its outspoken support for harm reduction philosophy and interventions, an approach that seeks to minimize the harms associated with substance use while supporting individuals who may not want to abstain from drug use (Kerr & Ti, 2013)
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