Community members participate in International Overdose Awareness Day at the Owen Sound Farmers' Market on August 31, 2023 (photo by Jill Charlebois)
As the City of Owen Sound marks International Overdose Awareness Day, gatherings will be taking place in the city today.
The event was started in Melbourne, Australia by Sally Finn in 2001.
In her speech to the small crowd that was at the event, Safe ‘N Sound Executive Director Annette Pedlar shared Finn’s words about the day: “At its heart, Overdose Awareness Day is a day that commemorates the death of a loved one. As death and injury to the people who suffer from overdose is felt across every socioeconomic and cultural span of the world, Overdose Awareness Day also knows no boundary. Intrinsic to the day is the opportunity for all communities to acknowledge that drugs and the possibility they cause overdose are a part of all of our lives.”
When speaking with Bayshore News, Pedlar says that no community is immune to being affected by drug addiction and overdose, saying “It looks so different in so many different places but we’re united in the pain and grief that we all share.”
At Thursday’s event, many community members were wearing purple clothing or accessories, as purple is the official campaign colour.
Safe ‘N Sound Grey Bruce is a community support organization that hosts a drop-in for those who need help with having a quick meal and shower, as well as access to supportive housing, access to healthcare from a nurse practitioner, and harm reduction for substance abuse.
Those harm reduction measures include Naloxone kits, safe injection kits, and substance abuse education.
She says that joining as a community to help reduce the number of overdoses will help raise awareness, and further assist in finding solutions to the problem.
She also says that harm reduction is necessary, and denying the need for such efforts is counterproductive.
“These issues need to be addressed, and they will be addressed. If it’s not a cause for you, step to the side.”
Lisa Morris-Miller is the Executive Director of the National Overdose Response Service, an organization that was started to help people undergoing mental health crises and to keep drug users company.
NORS started after Morris-Miller’s sister, Rebecca, started a phone line to be there for anyone who needs a person to talk to about their addiction or mental health issues.
“About half of our calls are supervised consumption calls. I think we’ve saved over 200 lives to date,” Morris-Miller says. “So supervised consumption does work. And we have a lot of mental health emergency calls from people feeling desperate.”
Sadly, Rebecca died of an overdose on October 31, 2022.
“The community is in such huge support of what we do. Our systems need to catch up, and our human instinct is to look after our human family. Our healthcare system is in a real sort of trauma of its own, and we need to utilize our valuable resource, which is each other. Communities coming together show that our human instinct is compassion and care for each other.”
Meanwhile, there will be events around Grey and Bruce Counties, including:
- Candlelit vigil at Coulter Parkette at 583 Green Street in Port Elgin
- Speakers, and a candlelit vigil at Heritage Square Gazebo at 358 10th Street in Hanover
- Vigil and Full Moon Ceremony at the M’Wikwedong Indigenous Friendship Centre at 1045 3rd Avenue West in Owen Sound
To mark International Overdose Awareness Day, Owen Sound City Hall will light up purple for the second straight night.