International Overdose Awareness Day is on Aug. 31 and in an effort to bring attention to the topic, the Hanley Foundation is launching a new Safe Prescribing Initiative to inform parents, patients and healthcare providers on the risks opioids pose to pediatric patients. The campaign includes multiple evidence-based resources, available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Creole. Among these resources is a Safe Prescribing Toolkit, which provides details the short- and long-term dangers associated with opioids—particularly to adolescents. Other materials provide insight into the risk and protective factors correlated with the abuse of opioids as well as research-proven alternatives to pain management.
“Addiction to prescription opioids can happen to anyone at any time,” says Hanley Foundation CEO, Rachel Docekal, MBA, Ed.D. “This is why it’s critical that the community comes together to stop the potential of opioid misuse or overdose at an early age. Our goal is to keep our children and community safe from addiction by decreasing the number of opioid prescriptions per capita in Palm Beach County.”
Between 1999 and 2016, nearly 9,000 pediatric deaths in the United States were linked to opioid use, and that number continues to rise in the wake of the ongoing opioid epidemic. In Palm Beach County alone, there were nearly 7,000 suspected overdoses in 2021, nearly half of which were opioid-related. The Hanley Foundation’s new initiative will raise awareness of the addictive and life-threatening potential inherent in opioid use.
The toolkit and other resources are available at hanleyfoundation.org/prevention/spi/
