Daily Sitka Sentinel

SECOND IN A SERIES: When Family Members Are the Last to Know

EDITOR’S NOTE: There is national recognition that the devastation of opioid abuse has reached into all levels of society in every part of the country. Following is the second in a series on how this national crisis is affecting Sitka.

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Shortly after Jamie Gorman died at age 30 on Oct. 22 of an accidental heroin overdose, mom Nancy Knapp started asking questions.
    On the heels of “why,” “how” and “what if,” was a question to anyone who could help prevent similar deaths in the future: “Will you work on this with me?”
    And she wanted to get started right away.
    “Otherwise people forget,” she said in a recent interview.
    Knapp and her husband Mark Gorman have lived in Sitka since 1978, and have had careers in the health care field here and internationally. They retain their family home here while they work abroad for long periods of time.
    They were in Thailand heading back to Laos for their work with international health agencies when they received a call from a friend with the news that Jamie had died. Knapp is involved in a project to eliminate malaria, and Gorman is director of the Lao Friends Hospital for Children.
    Having worked in the public health sector for more than three decades, Knapp was aware of the nationwide opioid epidemic, but not about Sitka’s problems, or more particularly, about Jamie’s.
    “People like me have never thought of it as a problem for our family,” she said. “I never heard anything from anyone about Jamie, even though there were people out there who knew about it. It’s a close-knit town, where everyone takes care of each other, but people couldn’t tell me, for many reasons. That was the hardest thing to learn: that some people knew. If I had been informed, I would have lived my life differently.”
    Sitka police, through their work investigating drug trafficking, were aware of Jamie’s drug use, Knapp said. Also, he had received medical care for seizures that may have been related to it. But as an adult entitled to keep his medical records private, Jamie did not share that knowledge with his parents.
    “The system doesn’t allow for this kind of communication that can save lives,” Knapp said.
    She’s not convinced the system can’t be changed, but even if it can, she knows there is more the community can do to prevent the loss of more lives, and the trauma that she and her family and Jamie’s friends are experiencing now from his loss.
    “The whole problem is all about ... people don’t want to talk about it,” she said. At her son’s memorial service, weeks later, Knapp knew “there were people struggling with this. Only now I’m realizing how huge a problem it is. Not just heroin, but cocaine, meth, other opioids. There’s all things you can buy on the streets, or from your friends. I’ve never thought about it before, but when your kid dies from one of these, you’re in disbelief.”
    After Jamie’s death, Knapp started talking to counselors, health providers, schools and law enforcement about what steps could be taken to offer help to those struggling with addiction, and to engage the community – including those who believe, as she used to believe, that they are free from any risk or connection to drug addiction.
    “From the beginning, I was not thinking about it – heroin did not even enter my mind,” she said.
    She noted her son traveled regularly, had a regular job in the fishing industry, finished his university education, and had a number of passions in his life – surfing, snowboarding, international travel. Drug addiction was not on her radar.
    “My son, he was happy, he was successful in a lot of things,” she said. “Of all the people I knew, I would not have ever guessed that Jamie would die of an overdose. If it can happen to my son, it can happen to anyone. ... When in my world did this happen?”
    Knapp has returned to Southeast Asia to complete her malaria contract but will continue her involvement in Sitka’s community discussion of opioids, and encouraging others from various sectors of the community to get involved.
    Knapp is hoping that by talking about her experience, a few things might happen.
    “It’s awareness, and it’s eliminating the stigma,” she said. “At the service, a lot of people said they want to work on this in the community. I started calling all these people – we started with seven. Now we’re at 12 people.”
    Knapp said there is a rough plan at this point to address problems on several fronts, including drugs in the schools, how the medical community can help, drug problems in the fishing community and harbor system, harm reduction programs and emergency response to overdose situations.
    Knapp is encouraging those interested in helping to attend the next meeting of the HOPE (Healing Our People and Environment) Coalition 3:30 to 5 p.m. Thursday at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
    Loyd Platson, prevention director at Sitka Counseling, says the meeting will be dedicated to looking at the impact opioids are having in Sitka, and also to providing time for community members to share their stories, concerns and hopes.
    “We want to get all ideas, and engage people who want to invest energy into trying to figure it out – it seems like it’s getting worse and worse ...  The goal is preventing another death like Jamie’s,” Knapp said.