August 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day – an opportunity to raise awareness about the opioid crisis, share information to reduce drug-related harms and gather as a community to remember, without stigma, those who have been lost due to drug overdose/poisoning. Gatherings are being held in Owen Sound and Port Elgin as well as communities across Grey-Bruce and Ontario to recognize this global awareness day.
Public Health issuing three Opioid Alerts in August, each following a series of overdoses within a short timeframe. Friday they announced the first suspected overdose/poisoning death this month. The victim was in their mid-thirties. The highest number of drug poisonings occur among men 35-44, often employed, using alone in their own home.
Gelja Sheardown, vice-chair of the Grey Bruce Community Drug & Alcohol Strategy’s Peer Advisory Committee, says IOAD is an important day for her on a personal level.“It's a day to reflect on my past and my struggles dealing with addiction – the time I overdosed, but was given a second chance at life. And without that second chance, I would not have my three amazing kids. It's also a day for us to remember the ones we have lost, the ones who were not able to survive the battle of addiction. People like my husband, Barrett Warwick, who brought so much love, joy and smiles to the world. The stigma needs to end now. We need more resources and help for people with a substance use disorder and people struggling,” Sheardown says.
Conrad Ritchie of the M’Wikwedong Indigenous Friendship Centre, which is holding an IOAD event, says “our hope with the memorial sacred fire on International Overdose Awareness Day is to recognize that with a collaboration of service providers, families, and communities, we have the ability to foster hope and healing through awareness, education and safe connections.”
Naloxone, a life-saving medication that temporarily reverses an opioid overdose, will be available at most of the events. Kits are also available via Public Health, a number of local pharmacies and community partners. Public Health is urging people who uses drugs to not use alone and, ideally, with someone who can administer naloxone, if needed. Public Health encourages residents to get overdose prevention training and carry a Naloxone kit.
The Grey Bruce Health Unit wishes to advise the public that all street drugs should be deemed highly toxic and FATAL. People who use drugs are at significant risk of toxic drug poisoning due to the local street drug supply containing the highly toxic drug Fentanyl and/or Carfentanil.
“The opioid overdose crisis has touched every sector of the community. Public Health’s approach is focused on highlighting the disproportionate burden on certain populations, understanding the drivers and factors of opioid overdose deaths and applying evidence-based interventions for prevention with the greatest potential impacts to address socioeconomic determinants of health,” says GBHU Physician Consultant Dr. Rim Zayed.
source: GBHU
