Canada is a major user of opiates in the world, coming only second to the U.S. What's more is that both the US and Canada are seeing a rise in the number of opiate overdoses, and especially in deaths due to overdoses, in the last number of years. In Ontario, opioid overdoses are now the third leading cause of accidental death. As a result of these statistics, many regions are now focusing on ways to prevent overdose-related deaths, including enhanced prescribing guidelines, as well as the increased use of and training in how to administer an opioid receptor antagonist called Naloxone.

In the video below, you can learn about the programs cities in Massachusetts have been putting in place to combat opioid overdoses, as well as hear about Narcan's positive effects on the lives of many in the US state, and see why some other regions may be slow to adopt similar programs...

"New England has been hit especially hard by fatal overdoses. In Massachusetts, deaths caused by heroin ‬ and other opioids have increased by more than 90 per cent since 2002. In response, the state started a pilot program in 2007 aimed at decreasing the number of fatal overdoses. The centerpiece of the program is a drug called Naloxone, known by its brand name Narcan‬. It's a nasal spray that can instantly stop an opioid overdose."

You may or may not be aware that the Golden Gate Bridge is not only an attraction sought after by tourists, but also by those seeking relief from mental health struggles or crises.  The Golden Gate Bridge is actually one of the most popular suicide spots in the world, second only to Aokigahara, or the Sea of Trees, found at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan. 

Due to the ever increasing number of deaths at the Golden Gate Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge Board of Directors finally approved plans and funding for a steel net in June in the hopes that it will deter jumpers and prevent further suicides.  To find out more about the proposed suicide barrier at the Golden Gate Bridge, check out the articles "Funding for Golden Gate Bridge suicide barrier approved" by Stephanie Smith (CNN) or "Suicides Mounting, Golden Gate Looks to Add a Safety Net" by Carol Pogash (New York Times).

For those who wish to gain further insight into the history of the bridge and its connection to suicide, take some time to watch the eerie and emotional, but powerful documentary The Bridge, filmed in 2004 by director Eric Steele, or check out "Jumpers", a 2003 New Yorker article by Tad Friend that inspired the documentary...

"People suffer largely unnoticed while the rest of the world goes about its business. This is a documentary exploration of the mythic beauty of the Golden Gate Bridge, the most popular suicide destination in the world, and those drawn by its call. Steel and his crew filmed the bridge during daylight hours from two separate locations for all of 2004, recording most of the two dozen deaths in that year (and preventing several others). They also taped interviews with friends, families and witnesses, who recount in sorrowful detail stories of struggles with depression, substance abuse and mental illness. Raises questions about suicide, mental illness and civic responsibility as well as the filmmaker's relationship to his fraught and complicated material" (imdb.com).

Have you been following the FIFA World Cup?  If so, here's something worth considering as you cheer on your team and watch these high-intensity soccer matches: the mental health struggles of our sports idols, especially those in soccer or football as it's better known as in some parts of the world.

Below is a must watch documentary called "Football's Suicide Secret" in which former player and chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association Clarke Carlisle not only opens up about his own attempt at suicide and experience with depression following an injury during his career, but also powerfully demonstrates and exposes how mental health struggles are not uncommon within the sport.

"Since the tragic suicide of Gary Speed in 2011, football has had to face up to a stigma in the game - mental illness. But is there still a taboo in the sport? Footballer and chairman of the PFA Clarke Carlisle investigates depression and even suicide in British football and speaks to young players, managers and Gary Speed's family to find out why footballers are suffering in silence" (bbc.co.uk).

As Carlisle explains in an article to increase awareness of mental illness in soccer, "when a player retires, his chances of getting clinical depression go up 40 percent. Other common triggers are injury, being transferred, the inability to separate home and work life. Yet I must also point out that there is often no logical trigger because depression is an indiscriminate illness."

As the article goes on to say, "to the outsider, the world of the footballer is one of adoration and vast riches, but for every leading star there are several more journeymen being barracked from the terraces.”

You can read the article about Clarke Carlisle and his quest to end the taboo of mental health in football here:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1699274-pfa-chairman-clarke-carlisle-in-quest-to-end-taboo-of-mental-health-in-football?utm_campaign=tsiphone&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=teamstream