County invites community to annual overdose awareness event
Mitchell Park in San Luis Obispo. Photo from Google Maps.
Event happening Tuesday, Aug. 31
–The County of San Luis Obispo Health Agency and SLO Opioid Safety Coalition is partnering with SLO Overdose Awareness to present International Overdose Awareness Day. The event will take place at Mitchell Park in San Luis Obispo on Tuesday, Aug. 31 from 5:30 – 7 p.m.
The event will include a resource fair, free Narcan (nasal spray antidote) trainings, and a memorial candle-lighting ceremony. The event is free and open to the public.
The SLO County Coroner reported an increase in overdose deaths in 2020 and a 64 percent increase in local opioid overdose deaths since 2016. On International Overdose Awareness Day (8/31/21), there will be a free public event held outdoors near the bandstand in Mitchell Park in downtown SLO. This annual evening of learning and remembrance is for anyone affected by overdose and substance use in SLO County and for those who wish to learn more about the issue.
Local agencies will present a resource fair, offering information about how to prevent overdose and find services available in SLO County. There will be free trainings and giveaways of Narcan nasal spray (also called naloxone), the overdose reversal drug that saves lives. The evening will conclude with a ceremony presented by Hospice of SLO County with the Threshold Singers, poetry and a candle-lighting ceremony to remember and honor loved ones lost to and those affected by overdose.
International Overdose Awareness Day, which is on August 31st every year, was started in 2001 in Australia and now is recognized around the world. SLO Overdose Awareness and the SLO Opioid Safety Coalition are partnering for anyone in the community to learn how the overdose crisis affects each one of us. Attend to learn and to remember loved ones lost. “It’s time to remember. It’s time to act!”
For more information go to facebook.com/SLOCountyODAwareness or opioidsafetyslo.org.
