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Today is International Overdose Awareness Day. With New Jersey in the midst of an opiate abuse epidemic, it is important to have an Overdose Action Plan. The Center for Addiction Recovery Education & Success (CARES) has developed lifesaving recommendations to follow if you suspect someone is overdosing:
- Call 911 and report observable behavior.
- Administer Rescue Breathing
- Administer Naloxone
- Stay with the person until professional help arrives.
Visit CaresNJ.org for information, resources, and training on how to administer naloxone.
Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the US, with 47,055 lethal drug overdoses in 2014. Opioid addiction is driving this epidemic, with 18,893 overdose deaths related to prescription pain relievers, and 10,574 overdose deaths related to heroin in 2014, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
No family is immune from this epidemic. Don’t let your family and friends become part of these statistics.
5 heroin stories for Overdose Awareness Day
Heroin destroys thousands of lives everyday around the world. In the documentary you'll meet mothers, fathers and children in New Jersey who are coping with life marred by the drug.
August 31st marks International Overdose Awareness Day.
The day aims to not only raise awareness about drug overdoses, but to bring attention to addiction in general and attempt to change the way we view and handle drug abuse.
APP.com has often been at the forefront of telling the stories of those impacted by the opiate epidemic in New Jersey.
Here are some of those stories:
John Ramaglia speaks about the difficulties in noticing the warning signs of addiction in his son, Matthew. Ryan Ross
Lacey father fights back against heroin
Still grieving over his son's death in 2007, John Ramaglia is pressing Lacey officials to deal more aggressively with the heroin problem in the township. Ramaglia has proposed more training for school staff and the installation of lock boxes for unused pharmaceuticals in homes.
The Children of Heroin series
In this three-part series the Asbury Park Press explores the little-known story under the surface of the heroin epidemic.
- Part I: The Press chronicles the downfall of a prosperous Bayshore man who dies of a heroin overdose in a Seaside Park winter rental, but not before his wife and five children are taken on the descent with him. (Read chapters one, two andthree)
- Part II - Born on drugs: The Press looks into the tiniest victims, the babies born on drugs or with what’s known as Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. The story focuses on a program that battles the effects of mothers opioid addictions on their newborns, and also the guilt borne by the addicted mothers.
- Part III - Surviving trauma: The Press talks to a 15-year-old Lacey boy who has overcome the burden of both parents being addicted to heroin and to a Jackson mom of two young boys who is striving to put her addiction in the past and is succeeding.
Parents take up battle against heroin
In a state where heroin addiction claims two lives a day, it would have been easy tooverlook the death of accomplished local musician Justin P. Thouret. The 31-year-old drummer and tech school student overdosed in his home in Matawan on New Year's Eve. But his parents took their private pain and made it public.
Mayor shares pain of son's heroin death to spare others
Seaside Heights Mayor William Akers speaks about his son's heroin addiction and overdose in an effort to help others, telling the story of a battle he never thought he'd lose in the hope it will help another family bury the needle, instead of their loved one.
7 things I learned after drugs killed my brother
Allison Brown's brother Kevin, 26, overdosed on drugs and lost his life in January 2014. Despite being a soccer star, Rider University graduate and a successful accountant for Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, he battled an opiate addiction that got the best of him. Here's her story.
To learn more about International Overdose Awareness Day visit their website at www.overdoseday.com.