It’s International Drug Overdose Aware Day (August 31).
In Williams Lake a gathering of several support services assembled in Herb Gardner Park to let the public know the kinds of help there are available in the City.
Organizer Sophie Galvan with Canadian Mental Health Association shared some sobering statistics put together by Interior Health right up until 2025.
“110 people in the Cariboo have passed away from drug overdose. What that represents is 68 percent of those people having died in homes. 68 percent that’s a lot. So understanding that these are our neighbours, our family members, our acquaintances, sometimes we don’t know that they are struggling with substance use. Because the substances are more and more toxic, obviously the risk is higher.”
Galvan said what they are hoping to do today (Monday) is to get people to be a little bit more curious to come and pick up a naloxone kit, learn how to use it, it’s very easy and it could save a life.
“We don’t always see it because it’s happening more so behind closed doors than it is on the streets. We see it here of course we do, we won’t deny that, but when we’re talking about 68 percent of those people who are dying from overdose, again it’s happening behind closed doors. So that curiosity, maybe that sense of care for our community members, our neighbours, would definitely be helpful.”
Galvan noted that the support services know who to send you to when you have questions that supports are just a quick call, a quick conversation away.
“Addiction is not as easy as oh there’s help I’m going to go and get it. Addiction requires a lot more than that. I would suggest to anybody to simply reach out to any one of these organizations here and they will know where to send you for things like resources and referrals, whether that’s a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, whether that’s going to Interior Health, going to the Hospital, going to our community organizations.”
She noted in the past few weeks she has spoken to a lot of people in the Williams Lake community handing out posters.
“And what shocked me was that the vast majority of these people have been touched by overdose situations with their family members or people they’ve known. This is a lot more common than we’re talking about and I think that’s the point is that we need to talk about it, to normalize it, to make it so that people when they are curious they will come out, whether it’s an event like this, they will go and maybe speak to our services in the community and ask questions,” Galvan said.
Something going on in the Cariboo you think people should know about?
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