In The Thick

Maria and Julio travel to Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, CT for a live show to discuss addiction and mental health in POC communities. They're joined by guests Kelvin Young, sound healer and certified recovery coach, , senior community organizer at Katal Center for Health, Equity, and Justice, and Taylor Ford, statewide youth and family coordinator with FAVOR, Inc. The overdose epidemic is often treated as an issue within white communities - who do make up a majority of opioid overdose victims - but a CDC report released earlier this year found that black and Latino individuals are overdosing and dying increasingly faster than white individuals. In Connecticut, where the Oxycontin-maker Purdue Pharma was based, 93 percent of overdoses in the state are caused by opioids, making it ground zero for the epidemic. In this episode, they talk about the underlying roots of addiction and mental health issues in communities of color.