Opioid

VOH's Cheryl Rusin and Elizabeth McEwen at Wilmington’s recent Energy Fair.

Groups host wellness event, new law offers hope on opioid resources

WILMINGTON - Voices of Hope, which provides prevention, harm reduction, and recovery support for people with substance use disorder, will hold an open house next week at the former firehouse in Wilmington. The group will partner at the event with Senior Solutions. The open house comes at a time...

Naloxone in public view saves lives and reduces stigma, say presenters

BURLINGTON - On Wednesday, the Center on Rural Addiction (CORA) at the University of Vermont held a webinar about the importance of distributing naloxone in rural communities.
Speakers for the webinar included Geoff Capraro, a doctor who founded a nonprofit called Naloxbox, which sells an...

BA2 not causing severe symptoms, pandemic correlates with opioid overdoses

MONTPELIER- Vemont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said COVID-19 variant BA2 is “driving an uptick” in COVID-19 cases in Vermont at the administration’s press briefing Tuesday.
“We’ve had a 29% increase in our seven-day average of numbers of cases, you can see a very slight uptick,”...

Group hopes text messages can be inspiring

WILMINGTON- A text message arrives: “Finding a role model helped me to deal with my self doubt. She showed me that someone like me has the potential to achieve so much. Have you found a recovery role model? A) YES. B) NO.”
Yet another spam message? No, this is something quite different,...

Group members share voices of hope in person once again

WILMINGTON- After a year of Hollywood Squares-style video conferences, the atmosphere at the Tuesday, June 29, in-person meeting of Voices of Hope felt like friends reuniting after a long separation. Representatives from a range of service organizations and individuals working locally introduced...

Pastor Jeremy Kirk is volunteer leader of Voices of Hope

Voices raised in hopes of helping

Note: This article has been updated to correct an error. In the original version, we incorrectly said that the public could obtain Naloxone at WIlmington's Petty Memorial Library. Neighbors stepping up to deal with the double whammy of overdose and a pandemic.
DOVER-...

Report paints a dire picture of substance abuse issues

DEERFIELD VALLEY- Jeremy Kirk, pastor of the West Dover Congregational Church, convenes an open meeting called Voices of Hope on the last Tuesday of each month, now by videoconference. This is no ordinary church-basement interest group; it is a group of groups, each committed to Windham County’s...

Opioid-related deaths up in June

WILMINGTON - Voices of Hope held its monthly meeting on Zoom on Tuesday, August 25. At the meeting, Robin Rieske, a prevention consultant with the Department of Health, said overdose deaths are up from a year ago. In addition, town nurse Jennifer Fitzgerald briefed the group about an upcoming...

The number of overdose deaths involving opioids in Vermont, by opioid category. Drug categories presented are not mutually exclusive, and deaths may have involved more than one substance. Source: CDC WONDER, 2020.

Study outlines challenges for people with opioid use disorder

WINDHAM COUNTY - On Monday, stakeholders attended a virtual presentation about reported findings following a study into opioid use harm reduction. The study involved interviews with people who use opioids and people who are in recovery for opioid use in Franklin, Rutland, and Windham counties....

Despite lull, recovery has uncertainties

Group discusses challenges, approaches for substance use disorder recovery
WILMINGTON - Voices of Hope, the group formerly known as the “opioid task force,” held its first pandemic-era virtual meeting on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by two newcomers who hope to provide recovery...