Your donation OPAS Olympas Pain and Addiction Services enables life or death information to reach addicts, families, friends schools, community organizations and medical responders.
As the medical director of OPAS for 25 years, I witness firsthand on a daily basis the destruction to human life that is caused by the use and the abuse of opioid pain medications and heroin. I see the damage not only to the suffering addict. I also see the devastating effect the person's addiction has on his or her family and friends.
Friends and family become accustomed to the addict’s lying, stealing and continual deception. What they are not prepared for is the opioid addict’s first overdose. It is a crushing blow to encounter a son, daughter, wife, husband, friend or neighbor lying unconscious on the floor. I say “first overdose.” Yes, if the loved one doesn’t die on the first overdose, there will probably been more, hopefully, not many more.
The initial response is “What do I do now?” “Who do I call?” “I feel so helpless.”
There is no more denial. With the loved one’s first overdose the friend or family member is confronted with the reality of helplessness, of possible death, of self blame for not having prepared for the scary moment.
Our medical team and support personnel searched websites and apps to find a mobile website or an app that we could use to recommend to family and friends to help them prepare for what to do when they were confronted with first and following overdoses of their loved one.
We could not find an app to meet the basic qualities of what we were looking for.
We made it our mission to develop a website, a mobile website and an app that could be accessed or downloaded onto any smartphone to provide the critical information that can be used, especially in a life or death situation to save a loved one collapsed in a serious opioid overdose.
We have received very positive feedback on our OD websites and OD app. “OD” is short for Opioid Docs at OpioidDocs.com, the name of the online and mobile websites. Opioid Doc, as in OpioidDoc.com/, is the name of the OD app. Share our Facebook page.
We invite you, no, we urge you to look over the OD websites and download the OD app to test for yourself the value of information, the diagrams, books, videos, lists of resources and contacts.
At this point we need help from you. If you agree that our websites and app are critical to help addicts, families, friends, schools, and medical practitioners in confronting the epidemic of drug use with new tools to meet the challenges head on, please help us.
There is so much more that needs to be done. You can help us make the tools even better, more effective. We need continuing research into new resources to augment the basics we have assembled so far. There are critical lists that need to be compiled. Plus, a huge effort is needed to get the word out to the providers, the institutions and the individuals who can benefit from our efforts.
If you can help promote the OD websites and app, please do. Maybe you can write them up in blog or a newsletter. Visit the websites and app. Share them with your friends, businesses, schools, churches, medical professionals and community organizations.
If you are in a position to donate money, we shall gladly accept whatever size contribution you can make. Just click the PayPal button and give what you can.
Thank you.
Dr Kim Rotchford, medical director
Dan Youra, managing director
