NEWS

By Lori Dunn | January 28, 2023 at 10:00 p.m. | Texarkana Gazette 

The stigma of losing someone to an opioid death often means their family members grieve alone.

“This walk we are on is something no one understands until they are there,” said Staci James, executive director of Hope Movement Coalition. “It’s a very lonely grief,” she said.

James lost her son Hagen Jones, 22, to a drug-related death in 2019.

Despite her grief, James could not stay silent. And out of that grief, Hope Movement Coalition was formed.

The organization of families affected by illicit drug and fentanyl poisoning deaths is working to help other families, and earlier this month group members received $1 million in opioid settlement funding from the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership, or ARORP.

The funding will allow Hope Movement Coalition to develop support services for families who have lost a loved one to substance use disorder or fentanyl poisoning with an emphasis on the mental health and overall well-being of each family member, James said.

The organization plans to utilize the clinical case management model; after an overdose or fentanyl poisoning death, grieving families will be assigned a licensed case manager and paired with trauma trained parent/sibling peers. The program will cover all 75 counties in the state of Arkansas. James lives in Northern Arkansas now but lived in New Boston, Texas, as a teen.

James said case managers and peers will be able to assess family members’ critical needs, then connect them with resources to reduce their chances of experiencing a mental decline and/or substance misuse due to their grief.

Another facet of the organization’s mission is to provide family care navigation and emotional support through the loss of a loved one due to illicit drug and fentanyl poisoning deaths.

“The reality is, it could happen to any family at any time. Until conversations are had openly about the prevalence of substance use disorder and the dangers of fentanyl for those experimenting, we will continue to lose residents in communities across the state.

“We are here to ensure those conversations start to take place, and that the families left behind have a community to support them,” James said.

According to CDC data released in late 2022, there was a 41% increase in illicit drug deaths from 2019 to 2020 in Arkansas. As for fentanyl poisoning deaths in the state, there was a 73.2% increase from 2019 to 2020.

“Its a darkness sweeping the land,” James said.

After her son’s death, James met two other Arkansas moms who had lost children to opioid deaths.

They met with Kirk Lane, who was drug director for the state of Arkansas at that time. And Lane has supported the organization ever since, James said.

James’ son Hagen was a star football player in high school and a member of the Navy at the time of his death.

“He was a submariner. It was his lifelong dream,” she said.

He was also about to become a first-time father. His son was born several months after his death.

“He was going to be a daddy,” James said. “There is a whole generation of little ones losing parents and a generation of teens losing a best friend.”

James admits she was someone who “did not air their dirty laundry.”

Her son’s death changed that.

“You can’t be quiet about it,” she said. “I was very vocal, I did not hide how he left us.”

A Facebook post she wrote shortly after Hagen’s death went viral. That post became a blog called “Hope Movement” and the blog became the coalition.

Hope for the change the group hopes to achieve.

“The stigma is so dangerous. People assume the victims choose this lifestyle but it can happen to anyone and we have got to get that knowledge out there.”

Opioid deaths can result from teens taking party drugs laced with fentanyl. The deaths can also result from someone needing pain medication after a surgery.

“It can come from someone having their wisdom teeth removed. It can start with teeth cut out and then ends with death.”

For more information, visit hopemovementcoalition.com.