Overdose Awareness Day & Harm Reduction

When is it?

• Overdose awareness day is August 31

Read

• Purple, Green and Yellow (ages 2+)
  #OwnVoices, Munsch has publicly disclosed his substance dependencies
• Hey, Kiddo (ages 11+)
  #OwnVoices child of kinship adoption required because of a parent’s substance dependencies
• My Brother is Not a Monster (ages 6+)

NOT RECOMMENDED, but you’re going to come across this book: A kids book about Addiction
(content warning about outdated & over-simplified language, calling drug users ‘addicts,’ implying dependencies are the same as addiction, othering of drug users, implications that all drug users harm non-drug users). This is NOT an #OwnVoices story.  Read this book if you want to unpack how popular media discusses addiction and others drug users, under a savior lens while also further stigmatizing drug users and people with substance dependencies.

Discuss

• If you and your child are not drug users – unpack how children’s books at your local library center non-users and imply that a loved one’s chemical dependency is something they are doing to non-users.
  Ask kids: Why do you think #OwnVoices authors with chemical dependencies reluctant to disclose or write about their experience, how they are treated, and what real help would feel like?
  
• The cost and barriers to healthcare in the US, the cost and access to street narcotics
  Ask kids: Why might someone experiencing a disability or illness be more vulnerable to developing a chemical dependency?
• How the US criminalized drug use, and whether trying to punish or scare someone out of a chemical dependency could work.
  Ask kids: What kind of help could work better?
• The movement for harm reduction & decriminalizing drug use.
  Ask kids: What can we do to help?
• How American culture encourages silence & invisibility around chemical dependency, but still sensationalizes drug use by marginalized communities and overdoses.
  Ask kids: Who benefits from narrowing the story about WHO uses drugs and WHY?

Take Action: Curb the overdose crisis

• Visit the national Harm Reduction Coalition to get harm reduction training 101
• Donate to the National Harm Reduction Coalition for National Overdose Awareness Day, 8/1

Take Action: Meet your loved ones where they’re at

@court0o0 Replying to @claym4ti0n advice if u love/care ab an addict but they’re not ready for abstinence;this is meeting ppl where theyre at-the most important part of harm reduction? #unhousedcreator #nyc #harmreduction #harmreductionworks #harmreductionworker #matsaveslives #wedorecover #bronx #southbronx #addiction #addictionawareness #narcansaveslives️ #unhoused #housingfirstworks #housingfirst #recovery #recoverytok ♬ original sound – court