SILER CITY — Chatham County, like many, has citizens who struggle with mental illness and substance abuse.
A group of local organizations are hoping to raise awareness, celebrate individuals who are fighting and remember those who didn’t make it.
The Community Recovery Rally, an event hosted by Chatham Drug Free in collaboration with the Chatham County Sheriff’s Prevention Partnership on Controlled Substances and Siler City Parks & Recreation, will take place from 5:30-8 p.m. Friday at Bray Park in Siler City. The rally, according to a press release, “will bring together local substance abuse treatment and mental health resources, as well as other community-based services to offer a network of support for recovery.”
Renita Foxx, director of Chatham County Court Programs and one of the event’s organizers, said the rally was born during a discussion at a meeting of the Sheriff’s Prevention Partnership and is all about awareness and making people familiar with some of the struggles their neighbors face.
“We’ve had a few opioid deaths and suicides in Chatham County, and you really don’t hear a lot of talk about what’s going on,” she said. “Our public doesn’t know that we have an epidemic going on right in our small hometown. This is an opportunity to educate, uplift and inspire on both mental health and substance abuse.”
According to the N.C. Opioid Database, Chatham County had 11 opioid-related deaths from 2014-2017, lower than other counties around it, but other statistics indicate that Chatham ranks in the middle or near the top in the area of other opioid-related statistics like the percentage of patients receiving more than an average daily dose of more than or equal to 90 morphine milligram equivalents, sitting at 6.87 percent, or total pills prescribed per person in 2018, at 34.7.
According to the 2018 Chatham County Community Assessment, 20.1 percent of Chatham residents surveyed said they had “ever been told by a doctor that they had anxiety or depression,” and 7.6 percent described their mental health status as “fair or poor.” The 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported that 33.6 percent of Chatham high schoolers said they had felt symptoms of depression almost every day for the two weeks prior to the survey and 11.3 percent said they had ever attempted suicide.
Friday’s rally will feature several speakers, including Chatham County Sheriff Mike Roberson and Siler City Police Chief Mike Wagner, as well as music and various agencies who focus on mental health and substance abuse. Agencies scheduled to attend include Daymark Recovery Services, El Futuro, Alcoholics Anonymous, Chatham Recovery and the Chatham Health Alliance.
“If someone comes and they want to know, ‘How do I do this? How do I start this process (of recovery)?’, they can pick out among our vendors the information and get on the path to recovery,” Foxx said.
Additionally, Chatham youth Elijah Roebuck and Kevin Manzanarez are scheduled to speak on the topic of “youth and mental illness,” according to the event program. Foxx said organizers thought it was important to have youth representation at the event.
“That’s another area that we really don’t talk about that’s needed,” she said. “That’s just to bring awareness to the community of the services that are needed and what’s going on with our youth.”
The event actually begins at 5 p.m. with exercise line dancing before the rally kicks off officially at 5:30 p.m. After a mixture of speakers and music, Siler City Parks & Recreation will show “Ralph Breaks the Internet” at 8:30 p.m. to close the night. Food will be provided throughout the night.
The overall theme for the night — as part of the 30th anniversary of National Recovery Month — is “Together We Are Stronger,” and Foxx said she hopes attendees come away with that message first and foremost.
“I want the community to recognize that this is not something that happens in one aspect of the city or one aspect of the community or to a certain population, but it has not respect of color, creed, race, gender, any of that,” she said. “The more that we come together, the more that we can get solutions and build a network that are in recovery or wanting to walk toward recovery.”
Reporter Zachary Horner can be reached at zhorner@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @ZachHornerCNR.
Want to Go?
What: Community Recovery Rally
Where: Bray Park, 800 Alston Bridge Road, Siler City
When: Friday, September 27, 5:30-8 p.m.
Cost: Free
Hosts: Chatham Drug Free, in collaboration with the Chatham County Sheriff’s Prevention Partnership on Controlled Substance and Siler City Parks and Recreation.