Wilmington Commemorates Overdose Awareness Day

From the City of Wilmington:

August 31, 2020

The City of Wilmington today lowered City flags to half-staff to commemorate the lives and families of the people lost each year in Delaware and around the nation to a drug overdose. Mayor Mike Purzycki said August 31 is being observed as Overdose Awareness Day in Wilmington and around the globe to bring attention to drug addiction and abuse, as well as to the mental health issues that are often at the core of drug abuse and deaths.

More than 750,000 people have died in the past 10 years in the United States from drug overdoses. In 2018, which is the last annual information available from the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Delaware reported the second-highest drug overdose death rate in the nation with 43.8 deaths per 100,000 people, just after West Virginia (51.5 per 100,000). Two other top overdose states border Delaware, namely Maryland (37.2 per 100,000 and Pennsylvania (36.1 per 100,000). In 2018, Delaware providers wrote 60.6 opioid prescriptions for every 100 persons, compared to the average U.S. rate of 51.4 prescriptions, and opioids were involved in more than 46,000 overdose deaths in Delaware in 2018.

PennyAnne Rogers founded the local overdose support group entitled Face the Facts after her 23-year-old son, Vincente, died of an overdose in 2017. Penny Anne said her son and the thousands of other people who have died each had a story that can help in the current battle to save lives. “People need to become involved to help fight a problem that is affecting people of all ages and backgrounds,” said Rogers. “Deaths from the overdose of drugs know no boundaries. In my opinion, 99% of people who die from drug abuse were using drugs as an escape due to some form of mental illness.” Rogers said that adding to the problem in 2020 is the isolation of people brought on by the current pandemic.

Rogers said Face the Facts, which meets the third Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m., partners with nearly 20 local community service organizations to keep the people who die from a drug overdose in the forefront so their story can help others. Contact Face the Facts by calling 302.650.7432 or through its Facebook page FacetheFactsDE/. The organization will also hold a socially distanced Mental Health and Addiction Awareness Information Night on September 16 at 6:30 p.m. at the Strano and Feeley Funeral Home on Churchman’s Road, which is the same location where a drug overdose monthly support group meets.

This press release was produced by the City of Wilmington. The views expressed here are the author’s own.