Pubdate: Mon, 02 Nov 2015
Source: Guardian, The (CN PI)
Copyright: 2015 The Guardian, Charlottetown Guardian Group Incorporated
Contact:  http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/174
Author: Jim Day
Page: A1

PARENTS BLAME THEMSELVES

Mother always wonders what might have saved her son

Petra Schulz is always wondering what might have saved her son.

"Every day, every day,'' she says.

"When a parent loses a child, there is a lot of blame attached because
we are supposed to raise them, launch them.''

Much of the search into what could have been done differently, Schulz
concedes, is futile. So there needs to be constructive focus.

That is what "mumsDO", short for mums united and mandated to saving
the lives of Drug Users, tries to do. The mothers, who have lost sons
and daughters to overdose and other drugrelated harms, are determined
to advance dialogue on harm reduction for substance users.

Schulz helped form mumsDO in August in hopes of helping other parents
avoid experiencing her crushing loss on April 30, 2014 when her
25-year-old son Danny died after suffering a relapse in recovery from
drug addiction.

"Nobody can say that we have a secret agenda because we have already
suffered the ultimate loss and we have personally nothing to gain
other than helping other people,'' she says.

"We are an elite club with a high price of admission.''

Schulz joined several panelists recently in Stratford for a
presentation on harm reduction sponsored by the Canadian Drug Policy
Coalition.

She has come to realize that drug addiction is a life long struggle,
not an ailment someone simply gets over.

"You have to find strategies to deal with it,'' she
says.

In the case of her son, she wishes now that she and her husband put
more focus on continued treatment and harm reduction in an effort to
not only help, but to ultimately save, their boy.

Parents, she stresses, must be realistic in dealing with a child
facing a drug addiction. She urges parents to give good information to
their children not only on how to stay away from drugs, but also on
how to handle drugs safely if they don't stay away.

As mumsDO notes in its literature, a dead substance user will never go
to rehab.

While the group does not condone the use of illicit drugs and also
notes recovery from problematic substance use is their end goal, they
do offer the following advice to drug users: - Don't use drugs alone.
- - Have a safe observer so there is someone to help if necessary.

- - Get drugs from a reliable source.

- - Be informed about bad drugs within your community.

Schulz would also like to see improvements in harm reduction within
the mental health care system.

"We need to take the stigma away from mental health ... and make it
more widely available where people are,'' she says.

"Mental health should be more integrated into primary health care as
should addictions treatment.''

She says social anxiety first drove her son towards
drugs.

Now the death of her son is driving her to work with mumsDO to help
others.

"Oh, Danny is always with me,'' she says.

"When I'm talking, I'm feeling that he is always there. I'm his
voice.''
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MAP posted-by: Matt