International Overdose Awareness Day

When family therapist and social worker Sally J. Finn founded International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31, 2001, in Melbourne, Australia, she launched an awareness movement still playing catchup to its cause.

Finn saw the impact of overdose while counseling families and later as a volunteer at a needle exchange program run by the Salvation Army. She likely did not foresee that two decades later, drug overdose would reach near-epidemic levels.

The estimated number of people using opioids ‒ which cause nearly two-thirds of all overdoses ‒ has doubled globally from 26-36 million people in 2010 to 61.3 million in 2020. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 108,000 people ‒ or 295 each day ‒ died from drug overdose in the U.S. alone in 2022.

International Overdose Awareness Day, held on August 31 every year, is the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose, remember without stigma those who have died, and acknowledge the grief of family and friends left behind.

Overdose is as complicated as it is devastating. Some drug overdoses are intentional, some accidental. Overdose often occurs with habitual users but can occur with first-time users. We don’t always see the signs and typically don’t see an overdose coming.

Each of us can support awareness and the effort to stem the tide by becoming more knowledgeable about overdose and its prevention and more aware of community resources that might be appropriate for a friend or loved one abusing drugs. The overdoseday.com website is a good resource for prevention tips.

The best awareness tip of all when it comes to overdose is to recognize that it is a medical emergency, and you should call for assistance. The emergency department team at Southwestern Medical Center is trained and equipped to treat overdose, but time is literally of the “essence.”