Overdose Awareness Day 2026: Because Someone You Love Deserves Another Chance
International Overdose Awareness Day takes place on August 31 and this year's theme, "25 Years On. Still Needed", has a significance that Quebecers experience whereas the rest of Canada does not.
Since 2016 Canada has seen over 56,600 deaths due to opioid poisoning, which amounts to an average of 15 deaths per day in 2025 alone. National figures dropped by 23% last year when compared to 2024, and the federal government has described this as an indication that joint effort is having a positive effect. However, Quebec is following a different trend. In 2024, the province recorded 645 overdose deaths, which was its worst year on record, and in 2025, it had 591 confirmed opioid-related deaths. Furthermore, the situation in 2026 is getting worse: there have been 309 suspected fatal overdoses in the first six months (this represents a 12% increase compared with the same period last year), and between April and June, Urgences-santé have been administering naloxone twice as often as they did a year earlier.
These are figures. For each of them, there is a parent sitting opposite a vacant chair at mealtimes, a colleague looking at a desk that will remain vacant, and a child who will have to grow up filling in the gaps regarding someone they loved.
We would like, today at Dunham House, to discuss one aspect of the overdose crisis which is left out of too many of the talks about treatment: what occurs when addiction and mental illness exist in the same individual at the same time.
The Dual Diagnosis Gap
Someone who is suffering from depression drinks in order to calm their thoughts; the alcohol in fact makes the depression worse. A person who has untreated anxiety turns to opioids in an attempt to stop the panic; the opioids alter the way their brain handles fear and thus increase their anxiety when the medication wears off. Trauma survivors take stimulants so as to keep going throughout the day; the stimulants intensify the hypervigilance which they had been trying to escape.
The loops do not sort themselves out and do have a particular and measurable risk in the case of an overdose.
A major study carried out in British Columbia followed over 920,000 people and discovered that those with a dual diagnosis—that is, a substance use disorder alongside a co-occurring mental health condition—had the highest rates of both fatal and non-fatal overdoses among all the participants. Similarly, data from federal hospitals shows that about 43% of hospital admissions due to opioid poisoning and 56% of the hospitalisations related to opioid use disorder involve a concurrent mood or anxiety disorder.
In Quebec, researchers have identified a syndemic—that is, a combination of poverty, housing instability, geographic isolation, and untreated mental illness—which results in opioid and stimulant-related problems being concentrated in certain communities. This situation also applies to the Eastern Townships.
By 2024, fentanyl and its analogs had been found in nearly two-thirds of opioid overdose deaths in the province and had spread from the urban area of Montreal to smaller towns and more rural regions.
Why Treating One Condition at a Time Fails
For decades, the standard approach sent people through the doors of an addiction program first, then referred them to a psychiatrist afterward, or the reverse. Two separate teams, two separate plans, two waiting rooms.
The clinical literature has caught up with what patients knew all along: this model leaves too many people exposed. A person who completes addiction treatment with their depression or PTSD still unmanaged walks out the door with the same trigger that drove the substance use in the first place. Relapse follows, often within weeks. The next use happens with a lower tolerance and a more toxic drug supply.
Integrated dual diagnosis treatment, the kind that addresses both conditions under one roof with one coordinated clinical team, produces better outcomes because it closes the gap between addiction care and psychiatric care. A patient's therapist, their psychiatrist, and their recovery support team communicate daily. Medication management accounts for the substance use history. Therapy modalities like CBT and trauma-informed care adapt to address both sides of the diagnosis in the same session, not in separate silos.
Quebec’s Crisis Calls for a Different Response
Although in most of North America, overdose deaths have reached a plateau or are declining, Quebec is still seeing an increase. The researchers at the Université de Montréal have been clear as to the reason: the province is ‘catching up’ with the drug trends that had devastated western Canada many years before.
Fentanyl reached the street supply in Quebec later than in other areas, but it is now present here, and the contamination is spreading from opioids to crack cocaine and other stimulants.
In response, Quebec's public health infrastructure has arranged the distribution of naloxone (a 2.5-fold increase in Montreal between 2020 and 2023), established supervised consumption sites, and revised its prescribing guidelines. These measures have the effect of saving lives at the moment.
The long-term solution entails treating the fundamental reason behind people's substance use, and in the case of a large number of people whose substance use is linked to depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, or other mental health problems, the treatment must deal with both issues simultaneously.
Applications for English-language residential treatment facilities in Quebec increased by about 16% in both 2024 and 2025. There is a demand for such services. The Addiction Psychiatry Program at the MUHC in Montreal was closed in 2024, which has further reduced the choices available to Anglophones.
You Can Take Action Today
International Overdose Awareness Day encourages each and every one of us to take action; for this, you don’t have to hold a clinical license or have a policy platform.
Learn the signs of an opioid overdose; these include:shallow breathing, blue or grey lips, lack of response, and odd snoring or gurgling. If you notice any of these symptoms, you should call 911 and give someone naloxone if you have it. Naloxone can be obtained at most pharmacies in Quebec without having to get an individual prescription.
Speak to the people you care about and ask direct questions. Having a conversation about substance use needn't be a confrontation; you could just ask them, "How are you getting on with that?"
Take naloxone. The nasal spray is safe, effective and only temporary since it delivers a temporary delay while the paramedics are en route. It is effective in the case of an opioid overdose and will have no adverse effects even if the substance that has caused the overdose is not an opioid.
Always use respectful language; a person who is struggling with addiction is just like any other person, not an addict, not a junkie, and not a lost cause; referring to someone in terms of their diagnosis makes it less likely that they will ask for help.
Recognize the connection between mental health and overdose risk. If someone you know is dealing with both a mental health condition and substance use, encourage them. Twenty-five years ago, some people in Melbourne, Australia, decided that overdose deaths should not be met with silence and therefore established International Overdose Awareness Day so that the world would cease looking away. Overdose deaths deserved more than silence. They created International Overdose Awareness Day so the world would stop looking away.
Twenty-five years on, in a region where the crisis is still getting worse, we retain two things: sorrow over the people who have died, and the fact that overdose can be prevented.
At Dunham House, we see individuals arriving with years of pain, substance use, and mental illness reinforcing one another in cycles that seemed impossible to break, and we also see those same people weeks and months later constructing lives in which they had previously stopped believing possibilities could exist.
If you or a loved one is having difficulties with addiction and at the same time suffers from a mental health condition, get in touch because treatment that deals with both of these issues can alter the course.
Sources: Public Health Agency of Canada (June 2026), INSPQ, La Presse (July 2026), CBC News, Keen et al. (2021) in Addiction, Cholette-Tétrault et al. (2025), International Overdose Awareness Day / Penington Institute.
International Overdose Awareness Day takes place on August 31st, and the theme for 2026 is "25 Years On. Still Needed." For more information, visit overdoseday.com.
Dunham House
About Dunham House
Located in Quebec's Eastern Townships, Dunham House is a residential treatment centre specializing in addiction and providing support to individuals with concurrent mental health challenges. We are the only residential facility of our kind in Quebec that operates in English.
Our evidence-based programs include a variety of activities such as art, music, yoga, and equine-assisted therapy. In addition to our residential services, we offer a full continuum of care with outpatient services at the Queen Elizabeth Complex in Montreal.