Luke Schmaltz - A Man of Words

Part One
Joyal Mulheron’s daughter died of a terminal illness.

While immersed in grief, she came to believe that there is wholesale dysfunction in the healthcare system and an astounding lack of resources for grieving people.

Professionally, Mulheron advises governors and the White House on health and healthcare policy. She vowed to use this experience as well as her background in science to bring these issues to the attention of Congress. In the wake of her daughter’s passing, she gathered h...

Randi Schalet is a licensed psychologist living in Berkeley, CA. Recently, she became the first person in the region to facilitate a peer grief support group for The Sun Will Rise (TSWR).

Schalet’s grief journey began three years ago when her 26-year-old son, Kealynd, died from an overdose.

“Kealynd began struggling with substance use at the age of 18,” Shalet begins. “Those eight years of addiction were beyond belief in terms of craziness. He was arrested many times, and he had lots of ups a...

Part One
Motivated by Mathematics is a recovery coach at Bedrock Recovery Center, a spiritual advisor, a poetry-inspired rapper, a public speaker, and a social leader. His world is beset with substance-use-related issues. Yet, he navigates with vision and wit – adhering to a no-nonsense code of maxims, mottos, and mandates.

Mathematics speaks about the role of peer support for those in recovery and how to cope with grief while sustaining recovery.

In his recovery journey, Mathematics had 131 ...

Karina Sosa works in human relations and bookkeeping for the healthcare industry. She shares insight into coping with two distinct types of grief. She lost a child during her first pregnancy in 2010. In June 2024 she lost her aunt to substance-use-related issues.

“I had a very difficult pregnancy,” Sosa begins. “Because of the issues with the baby’s health, I was admitted to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. It was my first child, and I was so excited. I asked the doctors normal que...

Part One

For many, grief is an all-encompassing storm which blurs the capacity for reason – especially when a loved one dies unexpectedly.

Inspired Leadership

Turner is a matriarch of her community and an active member of Communities for Restorative Justice. This Boston-based nonprofit restores trust within communities by supporting those affected by crime, including offenders, victims, community members, and law enforcement.

Turner is also a founder of Legacy Lives On, a nonprofit ministry w...

Part One
Meagan Fisher recently joined the SADOD team as a Peer Grief Support Specialist. As she helps others cope with substance-related grief, she draws from her experience with sustained recovery as well as her six years of working as a recovery coach.
She equates her journey to having lived through a war. “It was a 15-year battle,” she begins. “I am truly surprised and grateful that the drugs and my dangerous behavior didn’t kill me. Not many people I knew from that world had the same out...

Part Eight
This series explores how Massachusetts communities are accessing funds awarded from recent lawsuits against opioid retailers, manufacturers, and distributors. The cases were led by then-Attorney General Maura Healey and settled out of court in 2021 and 2022.
Charges were leveled against Walmart, CVS, Allergan, Johnson & Johnson, Purdue, and Walgreens. 351 municipalities statewide were awarded a total of $1 billion – to be distributed over the next decade-and-a-half. Leaders from ea...

“Dogs don’t rationalize. They don’t hold anything against a person. They don’t see the outside of a human but the inside of a human.” – Cesar Milan
In the world of recovery from substance use disorder (SUD), there is a time to be sensitive and a time for brass tacks. When the occasion calls for brutal honesty, a no BS approach and a whip crack sense of humor, Nate Costa is the man.
Costa is founder of There Is A Solution, a Massachusetts statewide organization dedicated to providing the tools...

by Luke Schmaltz
The cruel hand of time spares no one and is well known for putting the squeeze on the nether regions of older men. Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) — aka an enlarged prostate — is a fact of life for many but does not have to be the case for all.
Symptoms include an abnormally frequent need to urinate, especially at night, as well as difficulty beginning the urination process, along with a weak stream and inability to fully empty the bladder. The prostate surrounds the ureth...

“Justice is indispensably and universally necessary, and what is necessary must always be limited, uniform, and distinct.”
— Samuel Johnson
by Luke Schmaltz
Immigration policy and enforcement in the United States is ensnared in a three-way collision between the inertia of the Legislative branch, the duty of the Judicial branch, and the will of the Executive branch. Plainly put, Congress writes the laws on immigration, the Department of Justice enforces those laws, and the President tells them...

Music has an incredible way of reaching through time, across space, and beyond barriers to connect people, to share moments, and to celebrate life and love.
Kirk Anderson is a member of The Sun Will Rise Foundation, a peer grief support group for people bereaved by death from substance use.
Anderson’s son, Axel, had a pronounced love for music and he frequently posted songs from his favorite artists on social media. Today, one year and nine months after Axel was lost to a fentanyl overdose, h...

Distressed, Depressed? Ask For Help! “One of the biggest defects in life is the inability to ask for help.”
Robert Kiyosaki
by Luke Schmaltz
According to Science.org., the human brain has changed very little over the last 35,000 to 100,000 years. Yet, the degree and variation of stimulation and stress it is currently being subjected to has increased exponentially — especially over the last century.
In effect, the human brain is being bombarded by the wholesale results of its own sophisticatio...

By Kerry Bickford and Luke Schmaltz
It is 8:30 AM on a Tuesday, and Charles Curtis is on a city bus, en route to one of the two jobs he works between overnight stays at a Boston halfway house.
At the first job, Curtis will assist early morning members of a local gym. A role which allows him to draw upon his natural athletic talents which helped him excel at sports in high school. At the second job, he will serve meals and drinks to customers at a restaurant in the Prudential Center, a positio...

“Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear.” – William Shakespeare
Recently, Cindy Kaplan and Judy Kelly were in Plymouth Harbor leading their peer group from The Sun Will Rise Foundation on an excursion of remembrance. Every bereaved person in attendance carried a smooth river rock – symbolizing a loved one lost to substance use. They were on a paddlewheel boat preparing to memorialize the deceased by calling out their names and relinquishing the stones to a tranquil resting place ben...

“No one is immune from addiction; it afflicts people of all ages, races, classes, and professions.”
Patrick J. Kennedy
by Luke Schmaltz
The fundamental allure of using drugs is state change. The human nervous system is a pleasure-seeking construct. In the relentless pursuit of gratification, the human brain has developed an ability to manufacture state-changing compounds such as dopamine and oxytocin.
Modern ingenuity is locked in an undying quest to replace all physical and mental exertion w...