Red Deerians walk in support of International Overdose Awareness Day

“I wanted to break the stigma and raise some awareness surrounding people that die of overdose,” says Balan. “Lots of people that are in active addiction have trouble coming forward because they feel judged by health care workers, by people at a treatment centre, or going into a doctor. If you could open your heart and not judge somebody else, things will get better.”

The event is also a fundraiser for the Turning Point Society of Central Alberta, an organization responsible for sexually transmitted and blood borne infection prevention and support programs and services in the Alberta Health Services Central Zone.

“We’re hoping to raise $10,000 and as of this morning we’re sitting at about $8,000. I really hope Turning Point can use it for a supervised consumption site. Our next step really needs to be for Red Deer to have a supervised consumption site.”

Stacey Carmichael, Executive Director at Turning Point, says it’s an honour for their organization to be the recipient of the funds being raised through Leah’s Light.

“It’s a real opportunity to engage folks that we might not otherwise in this very important awareness event and on this very important day,” states Carmichael. “It means a lot, but the fact that there are over 100 registered walkers is probably more significant.”

Carmichael says they will use the money raised for their overdose awareness program.

“We’re going to continue to distribute naloxone and provide community awareness on overdose prevention,” she says. “As of today that we know of in Red Deer, we’ve lost 37 citizens to overdose fatalities just in 2018. We know the rates in Red Deer are super high and we need folks to start talking about it and learning about it so we can prevent more deaths.”

Both Balan and Carmichael agree that overdoses can affect anyone, not just certain segments of the population.

“Lots of people have it pigeon-holed to folks who are experiencing homelessness or the stereotypical ‘junkie’ on the street,” states Carmichael. “That’s unfortunately the demographic of people that are impacted significantly, but so is everybody else.”

“My heart goes out to everyone mourning the loss of a loved one today,” says Sarah Hoffman, Minister of Health, in a press release. “Each and every one of the people who died had a name, a family and friends and a history. This crisis continues to shake families and communities to the core.”

“We are working closely with service providers in communities across the province to raise awareness and foster greater understanding,” adds Hoffman. “We want people who use substances to feel they can reach out for help without fear of shame or stigma. We remain unwavering in our commitment to increase treatment, expand life-saving supervised consumption services and ensure naloxone kits are available to everyone who needs one.”

Data published by the Alberta government on Friday shows that 355 people died from an apparent accidental opioid overdose in 2018.

On average, two individuals die every day in Alberta as a result of an apparent accidental opioid overdose.

From April 1, 2018 to June 30, 2018, 160 people died from an apparent accidental fentanyl related opioid overdose, compared to 170 people in the first three months of 2018.

For Red Deer specifically, the latest figures show 24 apparent accidental drug poisoning deaths related to fentanyl during the first six months of this year, up from 23 in all of both 2017 and 2016.

By comparison, the city of Lethbridge, which has a similar population, has seen 17 apparent accidental drug poisoning deaths related to fentanyl during the first six months of this year, up from 16 in all of 2017 and eight in 2016. Lethbridge has one of Canada’s busiest supervised consumption sites.

For additional and other related information on International Overdose Awareness Day, visit the following links.

Alberta opioid crisis response
Q2 2018 Report: Opioids and Substances of Misuse
Q2 infographic
Drug Safe

by Sheldon Spackman

Red Deerians walk in support of International Overdose Awareness Day

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