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the frankfort station | May 4, 2017 | 19
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From FrankfortStation.com as of Friday,
April 28
From the editor
Mental health, addiction
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“Students from Ms. Marshall’s and Ms. King’s
classrooms have been learning about therapy
dogs and service dogs and different ways
these dogs help people. This learning was
brought to life on April 19, 2017 when Debbie
Tomasik, Therapy Dog Trainer, and her
companions, Sadie and Whalen, stopped in
for a special visit to share the experience of
some of the true talents of a therapy dog and
a service dog first hand. The students were
able to capture the calming affects therapy
dogs can bring to people and discussed many
situations where therapy dogs and service
dogs are helpful. They also witnessed a few of
the many talents and skills these dogs bring to
helping people’s lives.”
— Summit Hill School District 161 from April 24
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“Congratulations to Don Sebestyen on his
induction into the Chicago Catholic League
Hall of Fame. Don served as Principal of
PCHS from 01-14”
— @PCHS_Celtics from April 27
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and making sense of it
Kirsten Onsgard
kirsten@frankfortstation.com
It feels senseless.
A truck speeds across
four lanes, over an
embankment, into two cars
and through two storefronts.
Shocked, a store owner
calls 9-1-1. The driver is
unresponsive. And when
the fire department arrives,
the young man is revived
and hospitalized, later to be
jailed.
That’s what happened
about two weeks ago in
Frankfort Square in the
7200 block of West Benton
Drive near Harlem Avenue.
It was morning, and Shearin
Jurus had just opened her
tanning salon for the day.
Other business owners were
just arriving. Customers
were coming and going.
But in a flash, her truck
was totalled and her shop’s
windows smashed.
At first, it’s an incident
that sounds like a freak accident.
But the driver’s story
plays into a larger tragedy
in Will County: the 21-yearold
was allegedly under the
influence of heroin. Frankfort
Fire Protection District
administered Narcan, a
powerful treatment.
If it was required to save
his life, the young man is
lucky, relatively speaking.
Last year, 96 people in Will
County died from overdoses
related to heroin, fentanyl
and opiates.
As Jurus and I spoke
last week, we struggled to
make sense of the incident.
An alleged drug overdose
impacted her life in a way
she never expected, leaving
her to clean up the pieces
and shut down her salon for
several days.
She recalled several coincidences:
she never parks
her large truck in that spot,
but it ended up slowing the
trajectory of the truck. And
somehow, no one was hurt.
The good, the bad — it
felt random.
This was the first time
Jurus was affected by the
epidemic. Perhaps it’s
because of my age, but it’s
touched me a little closer.
I don’t know friends who
have died, but friends of
friends. My boyfriend has
acquaintances who were
killed. Facebook memorials
I read often lament the suddenness
of the tragedy.
But it’s not sudden, senseless
or random — this problem
has been going on for a
long time. And the epidemic
has become exponentially
more deadly.
What’s hopeful is Will
County has officials that see
this as it is: a mental health
crisis complicated and fed
by criminal activity. They
understand that locking
up users for a short time
doesn’t cure addition, and
that silence only fuels it.
These viewpoints evident at
last month’s annual Hero-
Helps summit.
As citizens — and as
good humans — it’s imperative
we are not complicit. If
you, a family member or a
friend has a substance abuse
or mental health problem,
there are free resources.
Call the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services
Administration help line
at (800) 662-4357, or the
National Suicide Prevention
Hotline at (800) 273-8255.
Help your customers
Find treatment, be supportive,
be loving.
Together, we can help
make sense of it.
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into action this season.
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Contact
Dana Anderson
Sound Off Policy
Editorials and columns are the
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from 22nd Century Media are
the thoughts of the company as
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