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This free event could help you save lives

Overdose Awareness Day happens in St. George’s Square August 29
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File photo of the Overdose Awareness Day event in St. George's Square. Tony Saxon/GuelphToday

NEWS RELEASE
ARCH GUELPH
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As we move into our second year of acknowledging Overdose Awareness Day, we do so knowing that since 2016 - 2018 Canada has lost over 11,500 people to opioid poisoning and the number continues to climb.

Stats Canada website tells us that in the year 2018, we lost 4,460 people – that is one life every two hours. Some do survive but suffer permanent injury, either mentally or physically, not to mention the devastating impact to their families and friends.

Guelph and surrounding areas are not immune. You may have seen it, it may have happened to people you know. Tomorrow it could be someone you love. This is not an invisible issue. Our guest speaker’s stories will inform us how real opioid poisoning is, and how it does not discriminate, and how it can leave its mark for a lifetime.

Overdose Awareness Day provides an opportunity for us to reflect on practical ways to prevent overdose in our community. Overdose is preventable. Knowing the real facts about drugs and what to do when you see someone experiencing an overdose. Naloxone DOES save lives.

On Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019, HIV/AIDS Resources and Community Health (ARCH) along with some of our amazing community partners will be hosting Overdose Awareness Day 2019. 

This event will allow us to come together to give recognition to all of those we have lost to this epidemic. We will also take this time to appreciate the folks that tirelessly work to keep our community safe and to inform our community on how Naloxone can help prevent this tragedy from happening to others.

Please come and join us from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019 in St. George’s Square at the front of RBC (Royal Bank of Canada), for reflection, information, naloxone training, pizza and refreshments.

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