Pasadena Women Assist Patients Struggling With Drug Addiction

Two women from Pasadena established The Lance and Ryan Fund to help support individuals struggling with drug addiction. Ann Youngblood and Denise Williams developed this initiative to provide support to people for a variety of reasons including medication-assisted recovery, sober living, and rehab programs.

Both grieving mothers, Youngblood and Williams named the project after two of their sons who died from drug overdoses. The fund, created in 2016, has so far helped roughly 50 people enter rehab or maintenance treatment.

Ann Youngblood’s 20-year-old son, Lance, died from a Fentanyl overdose in 2014. She admits she “didn’t know about drugs” back then. The loss of her son led her into a grief support group at Hospice of the Chesapeake, where she met Denise Williams back in 2015. Williams is also lost her son to drug addiction.

This chance meeting inspired the creation of a life-saving fund. According to Youngblood, the fund has provided support to people and has also provided support for the Anne Arundel mobile crisis teams. The fund was recently depleted due to the overwhelming number of requests for assistance. Click the link to see Oakland's top rehab placement programs.

“When we can't even answer the phone to help someone it breaks our hearts,” Williams said. And so the women have vowed to go “full force” by organizing multiple charity events to replenish the fund’s resources.

The first fundraiser of the year is a bull and shrimp roast at St. Philip Neri Parish Hall, 6401 S. Orchard Road in Linthicum. Admission is $40 per person. In addition to the meal, the county’s Crisis Response director Jennifer Corbin will speak to guests about decreasing overdoses in the county.

Later this year, Youngblood and Williams will hold their first benefit concert at Baltimore Soundstage. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door. It will be held on April 26. Most of the bands participating in the concert are recovering from drug addiction or helping to promote recovery.

Both of them believe that discussing drug addiction helps remove the shame associated with it. Stigma is after all one of the biggest barriers keeping people from seeking help.

When Youngblood was dealing with the reality of having a son who was struggling with addiction, she said she wasn’t sure how to help him. She tried yelling at him but says that didn't help. “I didn't know...that was definitely the wrong way of going about it,” she said.

For seven years, Lance battled with addiction. His mother describes him as athletic, funny, and caring.

Following her son's death, Youngblood vowed to learn as much as possible about drug addiction to help others navigate the disease.

Williams went through the same thing. And now she engages in addiction education in order to “pay it forward” and share her knowledge so that more lives can be saved.

“Whenever losing somebody one thinks 'what more could I have done?’” she said. "I wanted to know why my golden boys, that did everything right, all of a sudden we're doing everything wrong," she said.

If someone in the family is struggling with opioid addiction, it is important to seek help. A combination of medical detox and behavioral therapy can go a long way in the fight against drug abuse. But because every individual is affected by addiction differently, a comprehensive program tailored to their specific needs is necessary. Look for a nearby addiction treatment facility today and find out how drug treatment programs work.