National Fentanyl Awareness Day is May 7





HCA Logo (White on Transparent Background)






*May 6, 2024*






Can?t access the links? Add ?lnks.gd? to the allowlist of your content blocking software.






News release

For immediate release

Washington's Friends for Life Campaign shares facts about fentanyl

National Fentanyl Awareness Day is May 7

OLYMPIA - Most overdose deaths in Washington state now involve fentanyl. Knowing the facts about fentanyl is an important way people can help keep each other safe.

Tuesday, May 7, is National Fentanyl Awareness Day [ [link removed] ]?a day everyone is encouraged to take action to educate others about the risks of fentanyl and address the urgent overdose crisis. One of the primary calls to action for this year?s National Fentanyl Awareness Day is for parents and caregivers to talk to the teens in their lives about the harm caused by fentanyl, especially fentanyl pills which mimic the look of real prescription pills.

Washington?s ?Friends for Life [ [link removed] ]? fentanyl education campaign is a statewide effort to inform teens, young adults, and their parents and caregivers about the risks of fentanyl and the power of naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses. Through the campaign, people in communities across Washington can access free information and tools that can help them raise awareness about fentanyl and take actionable steps to prevent overdose deaths. Resources include:


* A conversation guide that walks parents and caregivers through when, where, and how to talk to teens about fentanyl and suggests realistic refusal skills that adults can help teens practice.
* Facts and FAQs about fentanyl and naloxone, and how fentanyl is affecting Washington communities.
* Illustrated details about how to spot an overdose, how to use naloxone to reverse an overdose, and where to get the opioid reversal medication.

Overdose deaths across the U.S. and Washington state are increasing rapidly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [ [link removed] ] estimate 75% of the nearly 107,000 overdose deaths in 2021 (the most current year with available data) involved an opioid like fentanyl. In Washington state, over 17,500 residents died from a drug overdose [ [link removed] ] between 2007 and 2021, with 68% of those deaths involving opioids. Rates continue to rise; the state saw a nearly two-fold increase in opioid overdose deaths [ [link removed] ] from 2019 ? 2021 alone.? ?

Increasing awareness about fentanyl starts at home. Research [ [link removed] ] shows that a majority of teens listen to and trust their parents and caregivers more than anyone when it comes to advice and information about not using drugs. Most Washington teens don?t knowingly seek out fentanyl, but the drug is frequently pressed into fake prescription pills that look like real Adderall, Percocet, Xanax, and OxyContin. In many instances, teens and young adults are encountering fentanyl without meaning to, believing they took a real prescription pill.

?Pills that are bought illegally may look like the prescription pills they are meant to mimic. But these pills are made in illicit labs and there is no way to know what you are taking or how much.? said Charissa Fotinos, M.D., State Medicaid Director at HCA. ?Fentanyl has no unique color, taste, or smell, so it?s impossible to know just by looking whether a pill contains fentanyl. This is why it is important to learn to recognize the signs of an overdose and carry naloxone.?

To learn more, visit WAFriendsForLife.com [ [link removed] ].

###

Media contact

HCA Media Relations <[email protected]>








?

*About the Health Care Authority (HCA)*

Functioning as both the state's largest health care purchaser and its behavioral health authority, the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) is a leader in ensuring Washington residents have the opportunity to be as healthy as possible.

There are three pillars of our work: Apple Health (Medicaid); the Public Employees Benefits Board (PEBB) and School Employees Benefits Board (SEBB) programs; and behavioral health and recovery. Under these pillars, HCA purchases health care, including behavioral health treatment for more than 2.7 million Washington residents and provides behavioral health prevention, crisis, and recovery supports to all Washington residents.

Please do not reply directly to this message. For more information, visit the HCA website [ [link removed] ], where you'll also find contact information.

*Disclosure notice*

All messages we send via GovDelivery are subject to public disclosure, as are the names and email addresses of those who sign up for email notifications.

*Nondiscrimination*

The Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) complies with all applicable federal and Washington state civil rights laws and is committed to providing equal access to our services. Visit HCA?s website to view complete nondiscrimination statements [ [link removed] ].



*Stay connected*

Facebook [ [link removed] ] ? LinkedIn [ [link removed] ] ? Instagram [ [link removed] ] ? YouTube [ [link removed] ] ? Twitter-X [ [link removed] ]? ?GovDelivery [ [link removed] ]?? HCA Connect [ [link removed] ] [ [link removed] ]

*Subscriber services:* Manage subscriptions [ [link removed] ] | Unsubscribe all [ [link removed] ] ?|? Help [ [link removed] ]

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page [ [link removed] ].






?

________________________________________________________________________

This email was sent to [email protected] using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: Washington State Health Care Authority ? 626 8th Avenue SE ? Olympia, WA 98501 GovDelivery logo [ [link removed] ]
body .abe-column-block { min-height: 5px; } table.gd_combo_table img {margin-left:10px; margin-right:10px;} table.gd_combo_table div.govd_image_display img, table.gd_combo_table td.gd_combo_image_cell img {margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px;}