Kentucky, Indiana observe Overdose Awareness Day

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Ceremonies were held in Kentucky and Indiana on Tuesday as part of International Overdose Awareness Day.

"Today, we take time to honor the lives lost to overdose and addiction and call all Kentuckians to work together to prevent future pain and suffering," said Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.

During a ceremony in Frankfort that was shared via live stream, bipartisan state and community leaders joined Beshear as he signed a proclamation declaring Aug. 31 as Overdose Awareness Day in Kentucky.

"Everybody out there working on recovery, in recovery, has the support of this entire commonwealth," said Beshear. "We are with you. We love you. We support you and we want to help you to succeed."

Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a speak at the ceremony, said, "Not only are we in the business of getting drugs off our streets, we're also holding accountable those corporations who exacerbated the opioid crisis."

Today, I was honored to speak at the Overdose Awareness Day Rally at the Capitol.I joined state leaders & families from across the Commonwealth to remember our fellow Kentuckians who have lost their lives to overdoses & to commit to using every resource to address this crisis. pic.twitter.com/F4W68evaeO
— Attorney General Daniel Cameron (@kyoag) August 31, 2021

In southern Indiana, there was a gathering for Overdose Awareness Day outside Clark Memorial Health put on by the Jeffersonville hospital's Behavioral Health Department.

"Anyone is welcome to join us to talk about substance use and its impact on their family and our community," Behavioral Health Director Aaron Edwards said in a statement. "Our goal is to improve awareness and share our resources."

The ceremony included a prayer and moment of silence outside the hospital's main entrance. Names of loved ones lost were written on the sidewalk.

Just across the street at the Clark County Health Department, Health Officer Dr. Eric Yazel said he's concerned about recent numbers showing an increase in overdoses.

"Indiana has a state-wide overdose monitoring system that monitors overdose volumes that come into the various ERs across the state and we (Clark County) got a notification both Friday and Monday," said Yazel.

He said getting notifications are rare, especially so close together.

Yazel said Friday's alert was due to a baseline increase in overdoses reported at hospitals over several days. According to Yazel, there were 22 reported in a four-day stretch. He said Monday's alert was for 12 in a 24-hour period.

"We've seen increased overdose activity honestly throughout COVID," said Yazel.

Yazel said he does not want to create fear in the community, but raise awareness.

On the Kentucky side, Beshear said there were at least 2,104 drug-related deaths in the 12-month period ending in Dec. 2020, which was a 54% increase over the previous year.

The event in Frankfort included a demonstration on how to use Narcan to potentially save a life in cases of an overdose.

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