Honor International Overdose Awareness Day with HHHRC

HHHRC and its community partners will take to the state capitol at 4PM to engage in sign-waving to raise visibility for International Overdose Awareness Day. Please join us on Beretania Street. An RSVP is not required but it is greatly appreciated!

At 5 PM, we’ll have a public ceremony to mark the day. The program will feature a minute of silence led by Jimmy Toyama of Mindful Hawai῾i and remarks from three HHHRC public health professionals: Dr. Christina Wang, who has used naloxone when providing wound care during outreach in downtown Honolulu; Donita Garcia, who will share her own recovery story; and Anika Martin, who witnessed a parent overdose during her childhood. Representatives from state government, including the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Division of the Hawai῾i State Department of Health, are also expected to be in attendance. Naloxone training and distribution will be provided at the event.

The event is one of many across the nation and the globe. The purpose of the day, which began in Australia in 2001, is to help raise awareness of drug overdoses and to reduce the stigma of drug-related deaths by openly acknowledging the grief felt by families and friends of those who have passed.

The Honolulu Fire Department recently committed to having all 1,100 uniformed firefighters trained in overdose prevention this year. The Honolulu Police Department and Emergency Medical Services currently equip their professionals with nasal naloxone.

HHHRC provides overdose prevention training, which is an ongoing component of the Hawaiʿi Opioid Initiative. From January to July of this year, HHHRC has distributed 8,138 doses of naloxone.