International Overdose Awareness Day is August 31.
The theme for Overdose Awareness Day is that it is preventable and every overdose is someone’s child.
Powell River’s Darlana Treloar lost her 27-year-old son, Sean, to overdose in May 2016 when six overdose deaths were attributed to heroin, fentanyl, morphine or prescription painkillers in the city. Since then, the rate of overdose deaths in Powell River has remained confidential.
“For people who have lost someone to overdose here in Powell River, everyone is very quiet,” said Treloar. “Nobody wants to talk about it. It's painful and they feel shame. I know that there's been lots of others but nobody wants to come forward.”
Just how many overdose deaths there have been in Powell River is not released by either Vancouver Coastal Health or BC Coroners Service.
“We have these numbers but they are not released publically,” said Vancouver Coastal Health medical health officer Geoff McKee. “We are able to release the data at our Community Action Team meetings for operational purposes, however, further distribution is problematic as VCH doesn’t own the data and the numbers are small enough that they pose a risk for confidentiality.”
BC Coroners Service will not release the data for the same reasons outlined by McKee.
Similar to the event last year, the Powell River Overdose Awareness Panel has organized a march beginning at 6 pm from city hall to Willingdon Beach south parking lot. Naloxone training starts at 6 pm and will continue through the event. There will be an information booth, memorial table and speeches beginning at 6:30 pm.
.jpg;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)