SPRINGDALE, Ark. — August 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day, a day aimed to help remove the stigma of substance abuse and hopes to encourage more to seek help with addiction.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, nearly 92,000 people in the US died from drug-involved overdose in 2020, including illicit drugs and prescription opioids.
International Overdose Awareness Day is personal for one Springdale nonprofit after the loss of Matt Adams in 2017, bringing two women to start an organization in his memory.
Matt’s partner Heather Starbuck and his sister Brittany Kelly started the Matt Adams Foundation to educate people on the importance of carrying Narcan – turning their grief into action.
“This is a problem that is so prolific in our generation and we’re the ones who are going to have to find some solution,” said Starbuck, the founder of Matt Adams Foundation.
Their solution to the opioid epidemic is spreading awareness by handing out naloxone kits – including to students and faculty at the University of Arkansas and training people on how to administer it.
“My number one goal is just to save as many lives as we can,” said Kelly, who is the director of harm reduction for the foundation.
Matt Adams died in September 2017 from a heroin overdose. That following January, the two most important women in his life teamed up to save lives.
“But that’s why we do what we do. We give out naloxone and we’ve been able to give out several thousand kits at this point,” said Kelly.
Another major part of their organization is helping people recover from addiction.
“It’s the basics of recovery: You have to be alive to recover. And so that’s what we focus on in our harm reduction,” Kelly explained.
Naloxone is an opioid overdose reversal drug. Kelly says once it’s injected it creates a barrier around the brain receptor that repels the opioid.
“So they’re intramuscular injections, so they go into thigh, butt or arm. What I tell people is, they’re kind of like a manual epi-pen. You have to draw up the vial. You only have to hit muscle, you don’t have to hit a vein. So, it’s pretty simple.”
The organizers are committed to combating the opioid crisis every day.
“That's the heart behind this… we want nothing more than to show people that addiction isn’t what you think it is,” Kelly said.
Going forward, the founders say they want to expand harm reductions and eventually cover the deposit fee for patients who are transitioning from rehab into another facility.
The foundation is able to pay for the kits thanks to community donations and a partnership with a local pharmacy to keep costs low.
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