CLEVELAND — On Thursday, Public Square in downtown Cleveland turned purple in honor of International Overdose Awareness Day.
Dozens of community organizations gathered to share resources and information about treatment, in addition to speakers and programming like yoga and mindfulness sessions. The evening will culminate in a candlelit walk.
The daylong event — called "Waves of Awareness" — was organized by Stella Maris, an organization in Cleveland which provides addiction treatment services. The goal was to raise awareness of those who've lost their lives to accidental overdoses, and also spread a message of hope that treatment and recovery are possible.
"There's 5,000 flags that the National Guard put in yesterday to commemorate the 5,000 lives lost in Ohio to overdose deaths last year," Stella Maris CEO Daniel Lettenberger-Klein said. "That number is not going down."
However, the hope in bringing together speakers and community resources for Waves of Awareness is to continue conversations about addiction and encourage people to reach out should they need help and support.
"We need to change the narrative on how we think about addiction and mental health, and that happens with us coming together and normalizing that," Lettenberger-Klein said. "We're all here together to save lives; that's what it comes down to."
This is the first year for Waves of Awareness, which included local officials like Cleveland Director of Public Health Dr. David Margolius and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne. The ADAMHS Board of Cuyahoga County was a sponsor of the event, and its CEO Scott Osiecki says while the focus of the day is acknowledging the thousands of Ohioans whose lives were lost, it's also to let people know that recovery is possible.
"This is all about remembering them, but it's also important that we are letting people know that there is hope," Osiecki told 3News. "We know that treatment works and people recover, and we want people to know that; we want people to get the help that they need. We know right now that the best way that we could curb overdoses is by harm reduction efforts."
Osiecki adds harm reduction efforts include using fentanyl test strips for drugs and carrying Narcan in order to save lives in the case of an overdose.
Dr. Joan Papp, an emergency physician and addiction medicine provider at MetroHealth and medical director of the office of opioid safety, says there are avenues for treatment. She's seen the impact of drugs on patients, and also sees the continued issue of overdoses impacting not only Northeast Ohio, but the country as a whole.
"This problem's been growing for a couple of decades now, and what we really saw was an increase in overdose fatalities since the pandemic," she explained. "We saw nearly a 30% increase after the pandemic."
Katelyn Krane has seen the devastation an accidental overdose can cause firsthand. Three weeks ago, she lost her fiancée and partner.
"It killed the love of my life,” Krane said. "And I miss her, but I know she's here."
Krane said she and her fiancée met seven years ago. Both had been struggling with addiction, but went on a recovery journey together. Today, Krane is four months sober, but says she didn't realize what was happening to her fiancée. However, she had begun to have her suspicions.
"The day that she passed, I presented her with a drug test around 6 p.m., and she refused, so I got my answer," Krane recalled. "And then by 10:15, she had passed."
Working to raise awareness, Krane volunteered at Waves of Awareness, wanting to help others and share her story. She compared using drugs to playing Russian roulette.
"Right now, it is just imperative that I make a message out of this mess," she said. "The people that [my fiancée] impacted when she was living, it's just astounding. When you met her, you were never the same; you were different. She was a force, and my person."
The day of events will culminate in a candlelit walk, and Progressive Field and Terminal Tower will light up in purple.
"This is a community built on taking care of everybody else, and recovery is possible for those who want it," Lettenberger-Klein says. "And for those who aren't sure about it, we are here, the necessary resources are here. Just talk."
