Please Know...

As I come to know these fine people, they share with me more of their personal and sensitive stories. Their collective story is what I am trying to share with you as my way of breaking the stereotypical beliefs that exist. "Blog names" have occasionally been given to me by the person whose story I am telling. Names are never their actual names and wherever I can do so, I might use the opposite pronoun (his/her, etc.) just to help increase their privacy.

Throughout this blog you are now seeing advertising. I need to provide this so as to keep going financially with this ministry. If you see something that is inappropriate to this site, please let me know - maybe get a screen shot of it for me. I do get credit for any "click" that you might make on any of the ads. If you're bored some night and want to help me raise some needed cash, visit my site and click away to your heart's content....


2000 Substance Use Disorder Patients 30 Minutes Away

This number, 2,000, is a number that I hear referenced as the number of people living on the streets of Kensington who are dealing with the combination of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and homelessness. Some people say the number is not actually that high. Even if the number is not that high, the number of people who circulate into that lifestyle and move on by way of finding health or overdose is easily 2,000 in any given year.


From where I'm writing this web page in a suburb of Philadelphia, I live about 30 minutes from Kensington. Generally speaking, every suburban person whose county attaches to Philadelphia County is more or less within 30 minutes of Kensington. 


These two facts are why I have titled this “2000 Substance Use Disorder Patients 30 Minutes Away. 


People often refer to what's happening in Kensington as ‘That Kensington issue’. It is not. It is our invisible suburban issue just as much as it is a visual issue on those streets.  Our literal suburban neighbors live on those streets along with families who have called the homes on those streets their family residences for a few years or multiple generations.


If you are a suburbanite in a county attached to Philadelphia County,

this message is for you.


I encourage you to consider getting involved with what is happening there. Kensington is not “down there.” The streets of Kensington are lived on by your literal neighbors.  If you find this hard to believe, join me someday and I’ll introduce you to five who are from my hometown and vicinity.


If you are a professional healthcare provider within the realm of detox and rehab services, I encourage you to get directly involved.  This crisis is far too large to not be involved directly.


To get started with a better understanding of what's happening in this community called Kensington, I invite you to my blog site: www.yourhelpfulneighbor.com


To further understand this issue, please watch this interview recently aired featuring my friend Roz:




I will be adding more to this page in the days ahead.



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