Health org to highlight overdose day

STAFF at Ballarat Community Health are aiming to break down the stigma behind opioid usage as part of this year’s International Overdose Awareness Day.

To coincide with the globally recognised event on Thursday 31 August, BCH’s campaign will culminate with a free film screening and panel discussion as well as lighting Ballarat landmarks with IOAD’s purple motif.

BCH’s harm reduction coordinator Kate Davenport said it’s important more people realise opioid overdoses are a more wide-spread issue than initially perceived.

“This year we want people to know that everyone can potentially be affected by overdosing, even if they’re taking prescribed medications or multiple substances,” she said.

“It’s not just a young person’s problem. I think a lot of the time when we hear overdose, people think it’s young people taking drugs, overdosing, and dying.

“From the statistics it’s actually people aged between 35 to 65.”

A Coroner’s Court of Victoria report estimated 1031 people throughout the state died of drug overdosed between July 2020 and the end of June last year.

Of those deaths, more than 20 per cent of people were based in regional locations with about 75 per cent being unintentional overdoses.

Ballarat’s Town Hall clockface as well as the fountains at Lake Wendouree and Eureka Gardens will be lit purple in acknowledgement IOAD.

The screening, to take place at 6.15pm at Regent Cinemas on the same day, will feature 2022’s The Fix which is about the effects of the US’s war on drugs movement.

Following the showing, a panel discussion will be held led by reduction practitioner Simon Brisbane and addiction medicine physician Dr Adam Straub as well as about three people with overdose or substance experiences.

Ms Davenport said she hopes the event will be a launching point to get people more involved in Ballarat’s opioid overdose situation.

“We want to get people talking,” she said. “We try to do something every year and have the community involved but this is a difficult topic to get people interested in.

“We thought it’d be a good icebreaker to have the screening and perhaps people will be more interested in seeing a movie.

“People think this is more of a metropolitan issue but it is quite significant in regional. It’s probably more pharmaceutical down here.”

Tickets for the screening can be bought at bit.ly/3qqsgSI.