Dermot Craig,
MIST Q National Officer
For International Overdose Awareness Day, I was proud to be able to join my local community in Aberdeen. I would like to start by saying congratulations to family members and friends, clinical support service and ambulance staff and Recoverists for all the work and effort given to raise awareness by the provision of information and training in how we can all contribute to eliminating the tragedy of deaths caused by overdose.
During the day there were six IOAD information and awareness events held in venues across the city including education colleges, community hubs\centres, Integrated service clinical setting, council city centre buildings.
In the evening a memorial gathering at the Marischal College in the city centre , which included a minutes silence in memory of loved ones lost to overdose and where the ancient building was lit up in purple in recognition of International Overdose Awareness.
During all the events there was training in the administration of Naloxone and use of nyxiod nasal spray. This resulted in numerous individuals being trained on the day with a further 120 signed up to attend group training sessions over the next month. There were also over 100 naloxone\nyxoid kits distributed to those receiving training and in replacement kits.
It was amazingly heart warming to be able to pop into these events in my hometown and contribute in a small way to the collective effort by participating in the shared memories of loved ones lost while also honouring them by giving voice to the proclamation that, “We must stop avoidable deaths and lives lost to overdose”.
