By Michael P. Walsh
Special to the Voice
The city marked International Overdose Awareness Day on Saturday by lighting the windows and steps of City Hall in purple.
“Overdose awareness is an important public health observance, not just today but every day,” Mayor Dorinda Borer said. “We are observing International Overdose Awareness Day because we want to bring attention to the challenges of this growing epidemic.
“We also want to let our residents know that we are aware of the problem, we are here to provide available resources, and we are committed to working with partners across the city to address this crisis.”
International Overdose Awareness Day, Aug. 31, is the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose, to remember without stigma those who have died, and to acknowledge the grief of family and friends left behind.
To raise awareness in West Haven, purple battery-operated candles illuminated the windows and steps of City Hall.
Purple is the color of overdose awareness, an international effort to call attention to the epidemic.
To increase overdose awareness, Health Director Maureen B. Lillis said the West Haven Health Department will launch a promotional campaign in September. The monthlong campaign will feature a new webpage dedicated to opioids and overdose awareness that includes education and resources for treatment, mental health and Narcan, along with a calendar of related activities throughout the year, she said.
Lillis said the department’s public health team will spend the month providing education and awareness, including pop-up events that distribute fentanyl test strips and pill deactivation packets. The test strips can detect fentanyl in liquids, powders and pills, she said.
Lillis said the department will use its portion of opioid settlement money to fund the awareness campaign and to help stem opioid addiction in West Haven. The money is part of a nationwide settlement reached with drugmakers and pharmaceutical companies for their roles in the national opioid crisis.
Fentanyl is an opioid painkiller many times more powerful than heroin and is typically prescribed to treat severe pain. It now frequently appears as an illegal street drug mixed with other substances, such as heroin, metonitazene or para-fluorofentanyl, the latter of which is sometimes known as China white.
Experts say the growing prevalence of fentanyl in the illicit drug supply is a top driver of the increasing number of overdose deaths in the U.S.
The city’s Health Department and Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security are working with churches and agencies to schedule training for Narcan, a brand name for a device that delivers the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone.
Lillis said anyone who completes the training will receive a Narcan emergency overdose kit, which contains two 4-milligram nasal sprays.
Emergency Management Director Rick Fontana has been installing the grant-funded kits in many municipal buildings and public places around West Haven.
Lillis said the Yale Community Health Care Van, a mobile medical clinic that offers harm reduction services, will also support the city’s awareness campaign by parking at the West Haven Emergency Assistance Task Force food pantry at least once a month to service people in need.
WHEAT, based at 674 Washington Ave., provides food for residents in need.