I remember helping my cousin clean out her mom’s house after her mother passed away, and we found naloxone in the cabinets.

I thought, “My aunt was not addicted to drugs.” And then I learned that they had a plan. She was battling cancer and she was using opioids to manage the pain. They had naloxone on hand just in case she had an accidental overdose from the pain medication. 

This is just one scenario Americans are facing in our country when it comes to accidental overdoses. 

Earlier this month we heard a staggering number shared by the CDC: 93,000.

This number reflects how many people we lost to an overdose in 2020. But it’s so much more than a number. It’s our children, parents, aunt, uncles, grandchildren, cousins, siblings, neighbors, and work colleagues. Enough loved ones to completely fill the Rose Bowl.

For far too long, loved ones across America have been living in shame and silence as they struggle with the devastation that substance use can cause. But a new educational campaign, called Reverse the Silence, hopes to encourage and empower this country to speak openly about addiction, understand the risks associated with substance use, and make it safe to talk openly about substance use disorder and accidental overdose. 

Fatal accidental overdoses are preventable.

The Reverse the Silence campaign provides the tools and resources to understand how all of us can save a life if necessary. This campaign is sponsored by Emergent BioSolutions, and is brought to you by a collective of national nonprofit organizations: Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), Mothers Against Prescription Drug Abuse (MAPDA), SAFE Project and Shatterproof. Together, we are committed to sparing other Americans the suffering that the opioid epidemic has brought to so many communities across the country. 

We invite you to join us in reversing the silence and learn more at www.ReverseSilence.org

Kirsten Suto Seckler is Shatterproof’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer.