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In 2019, fentanyl was found to have contributed to an estimated 51% of all drug overdose deaths in the US. In 2021, drug overdose deaths climbed to nearly 100,000 in the US. Harm reduction strategies such as easy access to naloxone and access and availability of fentanyl test strips are needed now more than ever as the opioid overdose crisis continues to grow. 

With the steady rise of substance overdose, especially opioid overdose, people are turning to more harm reduction strategies such as administering naloxone on a person that is suspected of overdosing from opioids. What is naloxone? Also known by the brand name Narcan, naloxone is an FDA approved emergency medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose

What is EMDR Therapy? Eye movement desensitization reprocessing therapy is a behavioral health therapy technique originally created to help treat those who were suffering from trauma or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Today EMDR therapy is used to help treat mental health conditions that occur due to memories of traumatic and distressing past events.

The idea of safe injection sites have been at the forefront of overhauling the behavioral health care system in the United States as the drug overdose epidemic continues to rise. Last month in August 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsome vetoed a bill allowing Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco to open up supervised injection sites until the end of 2027. Newsome seemed weary of the idea and noted that it had the potential to “induce a world of unintended consequences.”

September is National Recovery Month. Launched in 1989 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Recovery Month was implemented in an attempt to increase public awareness surrounding the obstacles of mental health disorders and substance addiction recovery. Today, Recovery Month continues to highlight and promote new evidence-based treatment methods and effective practices of addiction recovery. 

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), in 2020, an estimated 92,000 individuals in the United States died from a drug-involved overdose. This alarming number includes both prescription opioids and illicit drugs.  International Overdose Awareness Day this August 31 aims to bring light to a highly stigmatized and often overlooked matter when it comes to mental health and substance use disorders. 

In July of 2022, the number 998, was officially designated as the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For those people experiencing a mental health crisis, the new three-digit number modeled after the emergency services number 911, was created to make access to behavioral health services easier and more accessible. According to data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), in 2019, there was a recorded one death by suicide every 11 minutes in the United States.

Polydrug use, also known as polysubstance use, is a term for using more than one drug at the same time or one after another within a certain period of time. These drugs can include both legally prescribed and illicit drugs. This includes mixing depressant substances, mixing stimulant drugs, mixing stimulants with depressants and mixing multiple prescription medications.

Women’s health and wellbeing have been at the forefront of discussion since the recent June 2022 Supreme Court ruling overturning the historic Roe v Wade. This controversial decision revokes the fundamental health rights, at the federal level, to privacy that protects a persona’s choice to have an abortion.

Substance addiction is a disease that does not discriminate, affecting all genders from all backgrounds. According to a 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in the United States, about 18.7 million people age 18 or older had a substance use disorder (SUD).