International Overdose Awareness Day Partner Toolkit

Join us as an IOAD partner by using your voice and platforms to spread the message of ending overdose. This partner toolkit provides free resources, including key IOAD messages, social media content, and patient and provider educational materials, to spread the word about ending overdose. In addition to this toolkit, a campaign resources overview provides a list of materials available for download and print.

You can inform others of what can be done to end overdose by sharing these IOAD resources with your friends, family, and colleagues. Examples of how to get involved include:

• Posting IOAD messages and using the hashtag #IOAD2023 and #EndOverdose on social media.
• Sharing IOAD digital content, web features, and materials online.
• Using the sample articles to share IOAD information with communities and healthcare providers in newsletters, emails, and other partner communications.
• Downloading free educational materials and participating in interactive trainings for patients and healthcare providers.
• Educating communities at risk and healthcare providers at meetings, health fairs, conferences, and other events.

International Overdose Awareness Day is the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose.

The goals of International Overdose Awareness Day are:

• To provide an opportunity for people to publicly mourn loved ones.
• To send a strong message to people who use drugs and people in recovery that they are valued.
• To inform people around the world about the risk of drug overdose.
• To provide basic information on the range of support services that are available.
• To prevent and reduce drug-related harms by supporting evidence-based practice.

This August, CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control is marking IOAD with the release of a new report, showing counterfeit pill availability is increasing in the U.S.

1. A new study indicates an increasing percentage of overdose deaths are related to counterfeit pill use. These pills are especially dangerous because they typically appear as pharmaceutical pills but often contain illegally made fentanyl and illegal benzodiazepines or other drugs, with or without people’s knowledge.
   • Researchers found that among 29 states and the District of Columbia (DC), the percentage of overdose deaths involving counterfeit pills more than doubled from July–September 2019 (2.0%) to October–December 2021 (4.7%), and more than tripled in the West (4.7% to 14.7%).
   • The report also found that in 2021, people who died from overdoses involving counterfeit pills were more often under the age of 35 and Hispanic, compared to those without counterfeit pill evidence.

How to recognize an overdose

Recognizing an overdose can be difficult. If you aren’t sure, it is best to treat the situation like an overdose—you could save a life. Call 911 immediately. Administer naloxone, if it’s available. Do not leave the person alone. Signs of an overdose may include:

• Small, constricted “pinpoint pupils”
• Falling asleep or loss of consciousness
• Slow, weak, or no breathing
• Choking or gurgling sounds
• Limp body
• Cold and/or clammy skin
• Discolored skin (especially in lips and nails)

Lifesaving naloxone

Naloxone can reverse an overdose from opioids, including heroin, illicitly manufactured fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, and prescription opioid medications. Often given as a nasal spray, naloxone is safe and easy to use.

You should carry naloxone if

• You or someone you know is at increased risk for opioid overdose, especially those with opioid use disorder (OUD).
• You or someone you know are taking high-dose opioid medications prescribed by a doctor.
• You or someone you know have both opioid and benzodiazepines prescriptionsor use illicit substances like heroin or fentanyl.

CDC’s naloxone resources for healthcare professionals are designed to provide an overview of naloxone, a critical component of the public health response to the opioid overdose epidemic, and provide strategies that can be implemented in your practice.

Studies show that naloxone may not always be offered when risk factors are present, such as taking higher doses of opioids, prescriptions for benzodiazepines in addition to opioids, or history of overdose.

Clinician’s roles

As a healthcare professional, you can reduce risks of overdose deaths by

• Educating patients and their caregivers on factors that increase the risk for overdose.
• Raising awareness about the benefits and availability of naloxone.
• Encouraging patients who are at risk and their caregivers to carry naloxone.
• Explaining how and when to administer naloxone.
• Highlighting the importance of follow-up care for overdose.

What is available?

CDC created a suite of naloxone materials and tools to support your efforts to discuss naloxone with patients. These tools can help clinicians inform patients, families, and/or caregivers about the value of naloxone in a non-stigmatizing manner.

• Factsheets and Conversation Starters Information on naloxone for a variety of audiences ranging from clinicians to patients.
• Naloxone Training Includes modules that are eligible for free continuing education and interactive patient cases.
• An Addiction Medicine Toolkit is also available to support clinicians who are working with their patients to treat or manage substance use disorder or opioid use disorder.

CDC recently released the 2022 CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain. CDC developed resources and trainings for healthcare professionals to assist with implementing the guidance in their practices. We continuously develop materials so please check back periodically to see what is new.

Use our suggested X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn copy to spread the word. Schedule content to remind your networks about International Overdose Awareness Day.

Use #IOAD2023 and #EndOverdose to join the conversation and tag us at @CDCInjury on X (Twitter)! Additional graphics are available in campaign resources.

Include our sample content in email or print newsletters or other communications channels, including updates to staff, provider networks, associations, and community-based communications efforts.

Subject Line: CDC Marks International Overdose Awareness Day with New Research on Overdose Deaths Involving Counterfeit Pills
Title: Time to remember. Time to act.

August 31 marks International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD), the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose. This is a day for us to remember those who have died from drug overdose and acknowledge the grief of the family and friends left behind. We encourage you to use this occasion to raise awareness and to help spread the hope of recovery and to end overdose.

This year for IOAD, CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control will release a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), “Drug Overdose Deaths with Evidence of Counterfeit Pill Use — United States, July 2019–December 2021,” showing counterfeit pill use is increasingly identified in drug overdose deaths in the U.S.

Drug overdoses are preventable. People can help reduce the risk of overdose involving counterfeit pills by:

• Only taking pills prescribed to them
• Being aware that pills bought illegally might contain highly potent drugs
• Using fentanyl test strips (FTS), small strips of paper that can detect the presence of fentanyl in all different kinds of drugs (cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, etc.) and drug forms (pills, powder, and injectables)

You can make an impact by sharing our overdose prevention work and resources with colleagues, partners, and loved ones this International Overdose Awareness Day. We invite you to help share our message that drug overdose is preventable. Help us spread this message on social media with the sample posts in our Partner Toolkit.

International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD), held annually on August 31, is the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose. This is a day for us to remember those who have died from drug overdose and recognize those family and friends whose lives have been impacted by overdose. We encourage you to use the occasion of IOAD to raise awareness and take action to end overdose. Visit our website for the latest: https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/index.html.

In recent years, the U.S. has seen increases in the presence of counterfeit pills in the illegal drug market; these pills are dangerous because they often contain highly potent illegally made fentanyl (IMFs) or other illegal drugs with or without a person’s knowledge, increasing the risk of overdose. In 2022, over 105,000 people were estimated to have lost their lives to drug overdose. This year for IOAD, CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control released a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), “Drug Overdose Deaths with Evidence of Counterfeit Pill Use — United States, July 2019–December 2021.”

Researchers found that among 29 states and the District of Columbia (DC), the percentage of overdose deaths involving counterfeit pills more than doubled from July–September 2019 (2.0%) to October–December 2021 (4.7%), and more than tripled in the West (4.7% to 14.7%). The report also found that in 2021, people who died from overdoses involving counterfeit pills were more often under the age of 35, and Hispanic, compared to those without counterfeit pill evidence.

Recent increases in the availability of counterfeit pills containing IMFs and other illegal drugs highlight the need for expanded education about the dangers of illegal pill use and overdose prevention, access to harm reduction services, and tailored outreach to groups of people who most often take counterfeit pills.

Drug overdoses are preventable. People can help reduce the risk of overdose involving counterfeit pills by:

• Only taking pills prescribed to them
• Being aware that pills bought illegally might contain highly potent drugs
• Using fentanyl test strips (FTS), small strips of paper that can detect the presence of fentanyl in all different kinds of drugs (cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, etc.) and drug forms (pills, powder, and injectables)

This International Overdose Awareness Day, you can make an impact by sharing our overdose prevention work and resources with colleagues, partners, and loved ones. We invite you to share our message: Drug overdose is preventable. Help us spread this message on social media with the sample tweets from the IOAD partner toolkit.