Local organizations partner to host Overdose Awareness Day event

International Overdose Awareness Day is a global event held annually on August 31, and this year a variety of community partners will join together to host Waterloo Region’s own Overdose Awareness Day event at Kitchener City Hall. The goals of this day are to:

• raise awareness, and educate attendees on the symptoms, of overdose
• highlight the importance of reducing stigma associated with a drug-related death
• acknowledge the grief felt by families and friends who have been touched in some way by overdose.

The event will take place from 10:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and will include guest speakers Police Chief Bryan Larkin, Don Roth (Chair of the Waterloo Region Integrated Drugs Strategy Steering Committee), and Christine Padaric - Woolwich resident, advocate, and a mother of a son who passed away from an accidental overdose. Other activities include a memorial activity, displays, overdose prevention training, and naloxone distribution.

“This day presents an opportunity to help the wider community understand that drug overdose is a social issue,” says Christine Padaric. “Fatal and non-fatal overdoses affect all members of society. Knowing the real facts about drugs and what to do when you see someone experiencing an overdose does save lives.”

Community partners hosting the event are: Region of Waterloo Public Health, Waterloo Regional Police Services, House of Friendship, Ray of Hope, Sanguen Health Centre, AIDS Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo & Area, YWCA, Towards Recovery Clinics, Preventing Overdose Waterloo Wellington, oneROOF Youth Services, and community members.

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 Media contact: Kirsten Keil-Mehlenbacher, Coordinator, Health Communications, 519-575-4400 ext. 2244