International Overdose Awareness Day: Bringing Understanding To A National Crisis

Press release from the White Plains Public Library:

| by Julia Rae

Each year on August 31, communities around the world observe International Overdose Awareness Day, a time to honor the lives lost to overdose, support those affected, and work toward preventing future tragedies. It is a powerful reminder that behind the statistics are real people: family members, friends, and neighbors whose lives have been forever changed.

The White Plains Youth Bureau will host an International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD) observance on Thursday, September 4th from 5:30pm – 7:00pm at White Plains Library Plaza. The event serves to remember those lost to overdose and acknowledge the grief of their families, friends, and communities. Everyone is welcome. The event will feature messages of healing, hope, remembrance and compassion as well as music, educational resources on overdose prevention, and opportunities for community members to connect with support services. Together we can reduce the stigma associated with drug-related deaths and raise awareness about the availability of treatment and recovery options.

In support of this important initiative, the White Plains Public Library will be hosting a Narcan Training on August 14. Narcan (naloxone) is a life-saving medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. The training, which is free and open to the public, will empower participants with the knowledge and tools needed to respond in an emergency and potentially save a life.

Together we can reduce the stigma associated with drug-related deaths and raise awareness about the availability of treatment and recovery options.

Learn more with these books:

American Fix: inside the Opioid Addiction Crisis–and How to End It by Ryan Hampton

In American Fix, Hampton describes his personal struggle with addiction, outlines the challenges that the recovery movement currently faces, and offers a concrete, comprehensive plan of action towards making America's addiction crisis a thing of the past

American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts by Chris McGreal

Journeying through lives and communities wrecked by the epidemic, Chris McGreal reveals not only how Big Pharma hooked Americans on powerfully addictive drugs, but the corrupting of medicine and public institutions that let the opioid makers get away with it.

Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff

The #1 New York Times best-selling story of addiction and a father's love: “A brilliant, harrowing, heartbreaking, fascinating story, full of beautiful moments and hard-won wisdom. This book will save a lot of lives and heal a lot of hearts.”–Anne Lamott

The Big Fix: Hope After Heroin by Tracey H. Mitchell

After surviving nearly a decade of heroin abuse and hard living on the streets of San Francisco's Tenderloin District, Tracey Helton Mitchell decided to get clean for good. With raw honesty and a poignant perspective on life that only comes from starting at rock bottom, The Big Fix tells her story of transformation from homeless heroin addict to stable mother of three, and the hard work and hard lessons that got her there.

Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic by Eric Eyre

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at the Charleston Gazette-Mail, a “powerful,” (The New York Times) urgent, and heartbreaking account of the corporate greed that pumped millions of pain pills into small Appalachian towns, decimating communities.

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy

In this extraordinary work, Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of a national drama that has unfolded over two decades. From the labs and marketing departments of big pharma to local doctor's offices; wealthy suburbs to distressed small communities in Central Appalachia; from distant cities to once-idyllic farm towns; the spread of opioid addiction follows a tortuous trajectory that illustrates how this crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched.

This press release was produced by the White Plains Public Library. The views expressed are the author's own.