Drug-Related Deaths: Addressing a Social and Health Risk for Communities

Description

Drug-related deaths are a global public health concern, and the report of the Citizen’s Assembly on Drug Use in 2024 highlighted a significant increase in drug-related deaths in Ireland in the last four years. As deaths continue to increase and necessitate urgent state policy responses, behind the statistics each figure represents the tragic loss of a human life that carries a social identity as someone’s child, parent, friend, or client. People who use drugs navigate a range of social, health, and justice contexts, forming various levels of sustained personal and professional relationships. When a person dies, people within this social context are left to mourn the loss of life and the loss of potential represented by a premature and preventable death. Drug-related bereavement can foster a disenfranchised grief that reduces access to support through shame, isolation, and self-blame. If unprocessed, people who grieve a drug-related death are at increased risk for harmful short- and long-term health outcomes. This workshop will explore the impact of drug-related bereavement across three key social groups: family members, healthcare professionals who work with clients in addiction, and people who were using drugs at the time of their peer's death. Please note this workshop is not recommended to family members bereaved in the last 2 years.

Learning Outcomes

Through an evidence-informed approach, this workshop aims to challenge stigma, address a complicated bereavement, and shine a light on those who often grieve in silence.

On completion of the workshop participants will be able to:

• describe the impact of drug-related loss on individuals, families and communities

• identify interpersonal and practice recommendations on how to support the bereaved

• outline recommendations for services to acknowledge drug-related bereavement as a unique loss that requires specialised approaches to staff and service user wellbeing

Presenter Profiles

Dr Daniel O'Callaghan is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Suicide Research Foundation, and Head Tutor and Occasional Lecturer at the School of Applied Psychology, UCC. Daniel completed his PhD in the School of Applied Psychology in 2024, exploring the impact of drug-related deaths for families, communities, and services. Throughout his professional career, additional roles have included collaborative projects embedded within community organisations spanning homelessness, suicide prevention, and addiction. Daniel’s research interests revolve around the psychosocial and health implications of stigma, with a focus on people bereaved by drug-related deaths, death by suicide, and the implications for service design and delivery from a prevention and postvention perspective.

Dr Daniel O'Callaghan