14 opioid overdose deaths in Red Deer through first quarter of 2018

As our city sees more deaths from opioid overdoses, Red Deer’s Turning Point is receiving funding for a new awareness campaign.
 
Executive Director Stacey Carmichael says Turning Point is aware of at least three fatalities in March and one more already in April, bringing Red Deer’s total number of opioid-related overdose deaths this year to 15. 
 
A provincial government report for the first six weeks of 2018 shows there were six deaths in the Central Zone from fentanyl and two from carfentanil.
 
But $65,000 for a new awareness project is something Carmichael says will help Turning Point continue to educate the public and ultimately prevent these deaths from happening.
 
“Every little bit’s going to help,” she says. “I’m really excited especially about the anti-stigma campaign because it’s not very often a little organization like Turning Point has the opportunity to engage with professional marketing companies and to create such targeted messages.”
 
Carmichael notes a portion of the funding will go towards making presentations in more rural communities.
 
Turning Point’s is just one of 29 projects receiving backing from the province as part of $1.4 million grant announcement to raise awareness of just how bad the opioid crisis is.
 
Carmichael says that in the meantime, Turning Point staff remain dedicated to the task at hand: saving lives.
 
“I don’t know that anyone can really understand how hard it is at times, but what we do have is people really invested in supporting one another through our traumas,” she says. “We’re committed to improving the lives of the people we work with, and their families, and the entire community. We’re pretty tenacious in our desire to do that.”
 
Turning Point currently has around 2000 clients in its harm reduction caseload, Carmichael says, and continues to help more people with harm reduction throughout the Central Zone.
 
On their ongoing efforts to fight for supervised consumption services at a location preferable to them, she adds that conversations continue to happen.
 
“We’re telling our truths and we’re doing it peacefully, but sometimes that gets hard a little bit,” she says. “We don’t put a dollar value on people’s lives, but we understand that other people seem to do that.”