CUPHD hosts Narcan drive-thru, spreads awareness of International Overdose Awareness Day

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) – Saturday, August 31st is International Overdose Awareness Day, recognizing those who have died from an overdose and raising awareness on preventing future tragedies.

From 8 a.m. until 4.m. Friday, the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District held a drive-thru event to distribute kits of Narcan. Over the last year, they said the number of overdoses went up at least 10% nationally.

Joe Trotter, the Harm Reduction Program Coordinator, said there is still a stigma around Narcan.

“There is an increased need to have more people ready in case this emergency happens nearby them,” Trotter said.

They’ve gone door to door in the community, and last year, CUPHD distributed more than 12,000 kits.

“Often what we find is that people are surprised that we have it. They’re not aware of that it’s out there, that it’s legal, that it’s available. We want to remove as many barriers as possible for them to get a kit of Narcan,” Trotter added.

Trotter said the old message with distributing the kit was if you know someone who is using drugs, to have it on standby. Now they’ve adjusted their messaging to encourage everyone to have a kit.

“The data tells us that the more Narcan we distribute and saturate into an area, the less overdoses we’re going to have, so that’s the intention with our program is to get kits of Narcan out, help people get supplied,” Trotter said.

If you missed the opportunity on Friday, on Saturday the Vermilion County Recovery Oriented System of Care will also be distributing free kits of Narcan at the Danville Public Library from 2:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m.

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