YOOT Memphis

08/30/2026

Tomorrow is International Overdose Awareness Day.

Behind every number is a person. Not a lesson, a headline, or evidence for someone else’s argument. A person—known in the particular ways people are known: by a laugh, a habit, a song, an unfinished conversation, the place they should still occupy.

Behind every loss are people carrying love, grief, anger, questions, and sometimes the exhausting burden of explaining why the person they lost was fully human. They should not have to.

Tomorrow we remember without reducing. We speak about prevention without blame. We make room for grief and insist on action because overdose is preventable—and because every person deserves the chance to live.

08/29/2026

Awareness is a beginning. Choose one action you can take before August 31:

1. Get naloxone and learn how to use it.
2. Learn the signs of overdose and save the response steps.
3. Replace stigmatizing labels with person-first language.
4. Share verified local resources—not rumors, fear, or spectacle.
5. Listen to young people and people with lived experience before designing solutions for them.
6. Join the Memphis community at A Betor Way’s International Overdose Awareness Day gathering.

One action will not end overdose. Neither will one organization. But communities become safer when life-saving knowledge, practical tools, respectful care, and honest conversation are no longer rare.

What will you do?

08/29/2026

If you are somewhere in TN beyond Memphis, check out the link to find the international overdose awareness day event near you

International Overdose Awareness Day is August 31.

International Overdose Awareness Day is a time to remember those we have lost, support families and friends who are grieving, and renew our commitment to prevention, education, and connection.

Knowing the signs of an overdose and helping connect people to support can save lives.

Communities across Tennessee will observe International Overdose Awareness Day with events focused on remembrance, education, and hope. Find an event near you and learn more at https://tntogether.com/ioad/.



Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services

08/29/2026

Important info! Carry naloxone (and know how to use it) and save a life

📣 It's the final countdown to our International Overdose Awareness Day event! In honor of IOAD, we'll be sharing some key facts about overdose prevention & response.

One of the most common (and understandable!) questions that come up in overdose response trainings is "What happens if you give Narcan to someone who doesn't actually need it?"
Thankfully, the answer is pretty simple: Narcan/naloxone works by blocking opioid receptors, so if there aren't any opioids in their system, it won't harm them. If someone is showing the signs of an overdose, you should go ahead and administer the Narcan, even if you're not 100% sure (it's a better safe than sorry scenario!)

Harm Reduction Sisters will be providing free Narcan and educational materials at our International Overdose Awareness Day event this Saturday! Come join us at Lincoln Park in Duluth from 4pm-8pm for an evening of live entertainment, education, local resources, a community meal, and an overdose vigil to honor those we have lost to overdose 💜 We hope to see you there!

08/29/2026

Every life lost is a tragedy. Let's keep working together to empower young people to save others, avoid risk, and end youth overdose.

08/28/2026

YOOT is built by people who show up—not only by people with a particular title.

Five ways to join the work:
1. Join the coalition and attend a quarterly meeting.
2. Bring the perspective of a young person, family member, provider, educator, researcher, or person with lived experience.
3. Connect YOOT with a trustworthy resource, program, organization, or community event.
4. Volunteer on a project or help represent YOOT at a community table.
5. Tell us what young people in Memphis and Shelby County need adults and systems to understand.

The work includes research, education, collaboration, advocacy, community events, and the slower labor of building relationships across systems that are often very talented at not speaking to one another.

Learn more at yootmemphis.org or email [email protected].

08/27/2026

Carrying naloxone is an ordinary act of community care.

Naloxone is a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose. It cannot harm someone if opioids are not the cause, and having it nearby can buy the time that makes survival possible while emergency help is on the way.

You do not have to know who might need it. You do not have to make assumptions about anyone’s life. Keep naloxone where you can reach it, learn how to use it, and tell the people around you where it is.

Tennessee’s Regional Overdose Prevention Specialists provide opioid-overdose education, naloxone training, and naloxone distribution. Find current information through the link in this post.

Prepared is not paranoid. Prepared is prepared.

08/26/2026

An overdose may not look dramatic. A person may be impossible to wake, breathe very slowly or not at all, make unusual snoring or gurgling sounds, or have lips or skin that appear pale, gray, or blue depending on skin tone.

If you think someone may be overdosing:
1. Try to wake them.
2. Call 911.
3. Give naloxone if an opioid overdose is possible and you have it.
4. Support breathing and follow the dispatcher’s instructions.
5. Stay with the person until help arrives.

Do not assume they can “sleep it off.” When in doubt, respond.

Save this post before you need it. Share it with someone who spends time with young people.

08/25/2026

Looking for substance-use treatment for someone under 18 can become its own exhausting research project precisely when a family has the least spare capacity for one.

YOOT maintains a substance-use treatment resource list for young people under 18:
https://bit.ly/901youthSUD

Save the link. Share it with families, educators, healthcare providers, counselors, and youth-serving organizations.

Resource lists are only useful when they remain accurate. If you find information that needs to be changed, an organization that should be added, or a listing that should be removed, please let YOOT know at [email protected].

This list is a starting point for navigation, not an endorsement of every provider or a guarantee of current availability. Confirm services, ages served, insurance, cost, and openings directly with the organization.