By Sheldon Spackman

Breaking Down Stigma

Leah’s Light raising funds, awareness for overdose prevention and education

Aug 21, 2019 | 2:00 PM

Red Deerians are encouraged to come out in support of an event this Saturday aimed at breaking the stigma and shame surrounding addiction and overdose in our community.

The Second Annual Leah’s Light is a 5km walk/run for overdose awareness and a fundraiser for Turning Point in Red Deer – an organization providing harm reduction services throughout central Alberta.

The event runs in advance of International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31.

Organizer Ashley Balan says she started the event last year after losing her younger sister Leah in January of 2018, to an accidental fentanyl overdose at the age of 31.

“I just wanted to do something to bring awareness,” she explains. “People seem to think that overdose only affects the homeless or the poor or people that are severely addicted to drugs. Overdose doesn’t discriminate and we’re seeing that there’s young kids, teenagers dying, members of law enforcement, just everyday people are dying.”

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Over 100 people took part in last year’s inaugural event where Balan says approximately $10,000 was raised for Turning Point, a goal she hopes to reach again this year.

“It’s for Turning Point to continue their overdose prevention and education,” says Balan. “Overdose affects us all. No one is immune to it and I think the more that we know, the better we can do.”

This year, Leah’s Light will also include live entertainment, naloxone training from staff at Turning Point and a BBQ. Participants however are asked to keep their pets at home.

Registration may be done in-person on event day starting at 10:00 a.m., with the walk/run beginning at 10:30.

You can also register in advance by emailing ashley34@telus.net to get a pledge sheet or by visiting https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/Turning-Point/p2p/leahslight2019/.

According to the Alberta Opioid Response Surveillance Report – 2019 Q1 published in June by Alberta Health Services (AHS); there were eight accidental fentanyl-related poisoning deaths in the Central Zone in the first quarter of this year, for a rate of 6.6 per 100,000 population.

Two of those deaths were reported in Red Deer for a rate of 7.3 per 100,000 population, the lowest rate among Alberta’s seven largest municipalities.

Provincially, the Report shows 137 accidental fentanyl-related poisoning deaths in the first three months of this year, a rate of 12.5 per 100,000-population.

Although Calgary and Edmonton are shown in the Report to still have the highest number of accidental fentanyl-related poisoning deaths among Alberta’s seven largest cities, the Municipality of Grande Prairie has the highest rate at 59.0 per 100,000 population, well above the provincial rate.

Elsewhere in the Report, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) responses to opioid-related events show Red Deer to be among the cities with the highest rates.

There were 29 EMS opioid-related responses in Red Deer in the first quarter of 2019, a rate of 118 per 100,000 population.

Provincially, there were 917 EMS responses to opioid-related events during that time, making for an Alberta rate of 83 per 100,000 population.

The Report also indicates Red Deer’s temporary Overdose Prevention Site (OPS) saw more than 14,143 site visits from Oct. 1, 2018-Mar. 31, 2019 – successfully reversing 347 overdose events.

Harm reduction officials say Supervised Consumption Services (SCS) save lives by providing people supervision while they use their own drugs while offering naloxone, emergency care and access to health care in the event of an overdose.

According to the Report, more than 145,000 naloxone kits were distributed to Albertans as of March of this year – a drug that temporarily reverses overdoes and allows people to seek emergency care.

In addition, more than 1,980 sites including pharmacies are said to have distributed naloxone kits across the province in Q1 of this year, helping to reverse more than 9,500 overdoses province-wide.