Guest Column: Aug. 31 Overdose Awareness Day By Wendy Penner, Guest Column
05:48PM / Wednesday, August 30, 2023 | |
 | | Purple flags at North Adams City Hall mark the 107 North Berkshire residents lost to overdose over the past seven years. |
Thursday, International Overdose Awareness Day, is the world's largest annual campaign to end overdose, remember without stigma those who have died from overdose and acknowledge the grief of the family and friends left behind.
In Berkshire County, programs are planned in North Adams and Pittsfield.
In North Adams, the community will gather at City Hall at 5 p.m. Flags will mark each death, and people are welcome to bring (or make on site) signs to raise awareness and speak to their own loss. At 6 p.m., we will gather for a vigil to remember those lost. Bereavement resources will be available from Support After a Death by Overdose (SADOD). Narcan will be available. We will also have pins and bracelets to mark the day.
This is the first year North Adams is hosting a community event for International Overdose Awareness Day. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.
You can find other International Overdose Awareness Day events in Massachusetts on the Support After a Death by Overdose website. This organization provides many valuable support resources, including information about meetings for the bereaved, and a platform to memorialize a loved one lost to overdose.
Despite our best efforts, overdose deaths continue. In North Berkshire county, 107 community members have died from overdose between 2015 and 2022 (a conservative estimate based on data from the state Department of Public Health). Look around and someone you know has been impacted by overdose. Each of these deaths is a loss impossible to quantify — not only the loss of beautiful individuals whose promise goes unfulfilled, but the loss of family, friends and loved ones of all kinds. The pain ripples across the provider and recovery community as well. There are so many who work to lift up and support people who very much want to live, and there is a unique and difficult grief when overdose occurs.
Sarah DeJesus, harm reduction program manager for Berkshire Health Systems, noted in a recent Berkshire Eagle column that the nationwide contaminated drug supply increases the importance of accessing harm reduction services, carrying and being trained to use Narcan, speaking about overdose prevention and encouraging people to never use alone. Also, the Massachusetts Overdose Prevention Helpline (massoverdosehelpline.org or 800-972-0590) is a 24/7 service that connects people who are using drugs with a trained operator who can call for help in case of overdose.
Wendy Penner is a member of the North Adams Healing Communities Coalition and has been involved in local harm reduction and drug prevention programs. She is currently the Drug Addiction Recovery Team coordinator in Northampton.
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