29-01-2025
Boston becomes first city to launch fund for families of drug overdose victims
The fund culminates more than a year of planning and community meetings over how to spend money from opioid legal settlements, and comes as both Boston and the state show signs of progress in the decades-long fight to stem the tide of overdose deaths.
Advertisement
The commission reported preliminary numbers Wednesday showing that opioid-related overdose deaths declined 39 percent citywide between May and August of last year — after rising the previous year. In 2023,
statewide, according to the state Department of Public Health.
'If we're going to use the opioid settlement dollars in any way that's most meaningful, then we need to allocate money, first and foremost, to families with lost loved ones — mothers, fathers, children, parents who were left behind and suffering from loss," said Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, Boston's public health commissioner, who announced the fund at an event at Nubian Square in Roxbury.
The new support fund also reflects greater awareness of the devastation wrought by the opioid epidemic, and a lessening of the stigma that has long been associated with opioid use. More than 40 percent of adults nationwide say they personally know at least one person who died from a drug overdose, and about one-third of those individuals say their lives were disrupted by the death, according to
Advertisement
In recent years, parents who have lost children to overdoses have become more outspoken and organized — testifying at state houses for new prevention strategies and often starting charitable funds of their own to support grieving families. In Massachusetts, years of grassroots lobbying by families played a role in the passage of
insurance coverage for overdose-reversal medications such as Narcan as well as addiction recovery services.
Yet the needs for families impacted by the epidemic are immense.
'A lot of times, the children of overdose victims are forgotten,' said Joanne Peterson, the founder and executive director of
Peterson's group recently donated
$20,000 to families of 26 children who have lost at least one parent to an overdose, or whose parents are absent because of addiction. Money went to pay for children's clothing, therapy, day care, summer camps and even the cost of burying a parent, she said.
To qualify for
Boston's new support fund, an applicant must live in Boston and have lost their family member within two years. The deceased must be a spouse, father, father-in-law, brother, sister, child, grandparent, grandchild, legal guardian, or other member of the applicant's immediate household. Those who are approved will not receive the cash directly; instead, the fund will pay service providers directly, limited to $5,000 per invoice.
Advertisement
Some of the expenses that the fund will cover include funerals, burials and cremation services for a relative who died of an overdose, a well as clinical therapy for surviving family members. It will also cover activities for surviving children, such as sports, music lessons and summer camp.
More than 50 families will receive assistance through the fund, which is expected to last two years.
As of November of last year, Boston
Chris Serres can be reached at
