Giving it her all

Grieving mom trying to rally government and society to help the addicted

By Olivia Bradbury/Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In 2023, 20-year-old Ben Olivero died of an opioid overdose after a long struggle with addiction. After his death, his mother Tina thought about what they had gone through.

“I said, ‘Who do I need to be?’ Who did I want next to me when I was going through all of that? And I became that for other parents and families and people with addiction,” she said.

So, Olivero founded Guardians of Recovery, a foundation which focuses on helping addicts recover and giving support to their families. Olivero said they have helped 49 addicts get into recovery thus far, and have helped hundreds of families.

Olivero has met with John Abbott, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, on a weekly basis to try to figure out how to address the addiction crisis the province is facing.

“We have overdoses every single day,” she said. “And that’s a huge message to get out there because I don’t think people realize, while not everybody dies, we are still having two or three overdoses per day in this province, if not more. We don’t even know how many because the Province hasn’t accurately calculated. But when we follow the obituaries, we follow the number of calls, you can hear the sirens downtown constantly, we know.”

Olivero said statistics show the leading cause of death in Canadian youths aged 10 to 19 is illicit drugs.

According to Olivero, most of the shelters in this province are “low barrier,” meaning there is no barrier to enter. So, the use of drugs on the property is not prohibited. While these facilities are good in that they allow homeless people to get off the streets, she said, they are not good places for an addict.

“When all of our shelters are low barrier, for someone who wants to actually get sober and (seek) recovery, it’s virtually impossible to do it in that environment because you’re surrounded by people who are all still using drugs,” said Olivero.

There is no incentive to recover in low-barrier shelters, she added, noting the foundation has worked with people who relapsed in such shelters in the past.

“It becomes a centre and a hub of drug use,” Olivero said.

While Ben’s initial addiction was to cannabis, Olivero said he acquired an opioid addiction while in a low-barrier shelter.

“If there’s no requirement for sobriety, and there’s a lack of accountability, and we normalize substance use, and there’s limited resources for recovery programs, twelve-step programs, that kind of thing, we’re actually enabling addiction in those facilities,” said Olivero.

She asserted that while there is a role for these shelters, they cannot be the only available option.

Olivero said many addicts have a condition known as anosognosia, an inability to recognize sickness in oneself. It is also common in people with other mental conditions such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and dementia.

“If we have anosognosia running in the background and people are never tested for it, they can’t see that they’re sick,” said Olivero. “This is critical because we have people on the streets with severe mental illness like my son, Ben.”

Olivero would sometimes find her son outside on cold nights in only  a T-shirt, not realizing he was freezing to death. She said diagnoses of such conditions are crucial to the recovery process.

“I don’t believe in what people call ‘involuntary care,’ I believe in diagnostics,” said Olivero. “As soon as you diagnose someone and know that they have anosognosia, there’s no such thing as involuntary care. There’s only care for someone who can’t see that they’re sick.”

Olivero said when she created Guardians of Recovery the goal was not just to help people, but to build a world or a culture that supports an inclusive recovery system. That includes sober living homes, and supportive and drug-free alternatives to low-barrier shelters.

But not having had much knowledge about how to do that, she started a Guardians of Recovery podcast to talk with knowledgeable people and leaders on such issues. She found individuals who were succeeding with sober living homes and therapeutic programs, such as Earl Thiessen, who is the executive director of the Oxford House Foundation, an Alberta-based organization that provides sober living homes to people in recovery. Thiessen currently runs 27 sober living homes. Alberta is also the only province to have successfully interceded in the trajectory of overdoses thus far, said Olivero, the only province in which the rate of overdoses is going down.

“It’s because they do have such a recovery mindset and a powerful recovery system,” said Olivero.

Guardians of Recovery presented the protocols Thiessen has developed, along with a sober living home proposal, to government. Like low-barrier shelters, sober living homes will have to be funded by taxes, she said. Olivero wants to call them Ben Olivero Sober Living Homes.

“I built it in such a way that I knew if Ben walked in the doors there, he would still be alive today,” said Olivero. “And that’s what I’m hoping for other people.”

Olivero said society is neglecting drug addicts, because it doesn’t recognize it as an illness.

“We do this because people don’t understand that addiction is not a choice,” said Olivero. “Addiction is a brain illness.”

Ben was an honours student until he smoked marijuana for the first time. That “unlocked” his bipolar disorder and anosognosia. “It’s not something he chose,” Olivero said. “It was something he was genetically born with.”

Olivero said we must make society inclusive for those suffering from addiction, just as we have made it more inclusive for people with disabilities. “Then, and only then, will we be able to turn the crisis around the way they have in Alberta,” she said.

Olivero said it is a great time for anyone interested in volunteering to get involved with the foundation. For sober living home counselors, they are looking for people with lived experience and who have been sober for a long time. The foundation also needs financial contributions. Everyone involved in Guardians of Recovery, including Olivero, are volunteers. However, she admitted, this is not sustainable, and eventually the foundation will need to offer paid positions. They plan is to do so once they get their charitable status, which they are in the process of seeking. Once they have it, Olivero said, the foundation is going to focus on getting laws changed so that people with mental health problems and addiction are properly supported, have a national voice, and access to sober living homes across Canada and, first and foremost, across Newfoundland and Labrador.

“I don’t know one person who’s not impacted by the addiction crisis, whether it’s alcohol or illicit drugs,” said Olivero. “It’s not going away and it’s not getting better, so it’s going to take the whole province to take it on the way I did. I’m taking it on like this is my personal responsibility to fix this. And if I don’t, who will?”

Olivero said if everyone adopted this same mentality, the crisis would be rectified in good time. She encourages people to look at themselves and think about what they bring to the table and how they can make a difference. “We’re powerful people,” she said. “If we all step forward and do something, we can change the trajectory of where we’re headed.”

            Anyone interested in supporting the shelter, learning more, or availing of its resources can visit guardiansofrecovery.foundation. On the website you can find a podcast, blogs, a magazine, and more. You can also watch episodes of the podcast on the Guardians of Recovery YouTube channel.

Tina Olivero is trying to rally Newfoundlanders to make the government deal with the province’s opioid addiction crisis. She is hoping to see safe, sober living homes established to help people in memory of her son who was lost to addiction.