International Overdose Awareness Day is Aug. 31

International Overdose Awareness Day is a global event held Aug. 31 each year. It is dedicated to remembrance, awareness, education and action that will help eliminate overdose deaths. On Aug. 31 – and throughout the month – you can help raise awareness, memorialize a lost loved one, inspire change and save lives.

What can you do?

Invite people to a local gathering at a community center, library, park or other public space:

• Hold a candlelight vigil
• Offer an educational program, such as one related to preventing opioid use, in partnership with a local organization
• Provide a safe space for telling the stories of overdose victims
• Offer a large canvas and washable paint for survivors to add a handprint in memory of their loved one
• Display empty hats or shoes to represent the number of lives lost in the community
• Use the NSC Community Action Kit as a planning guide

Everyone can participate in IOAD with one of these activities:

• Remember a loved one by supporting NSC efforts to end the opioid epidemic
• Access the NSC Facebook page to get a purple frame for your Facebook profile image Aug. 20
• Share the NSC Facebook Live virtual candlelight vigil Aug. 31
• Add the name of a loved one who died of an opioid overdose to the Celebrating Lost Loved Ones map
• Purchase or create purple wristbands, pins, shirts or other items and wear them on Aug. 31
• Research state and federal legislation that addresses opioid overdose prevention, and write to your representative