Talk Overdose

In May 2021, me, my sisters and a friend entered a UBC Department of Psychiatry competition to pitch an idea to combat the opioid crisis. The maximum length of the pitch was 2 minutes, and we did our best but didn’t really expect it would succeed!

Then, we’d made it to the finals and we had a week to expand our 2-minute pitch into a detailed presentation. We did it, then made our live presentation to the judges.

It was only then that we realized that we were the lone group middle and high school students, competing against university students, many of which were part of the department of psychiatry. And we did our best, but perhaps not unsurprisingly we lost.

It could have ended there, but we decided to turn our entry to a complete project.

We believe we can reduce stigma towards opioids in Canada and are in the process of making a series of interviews showing the impact of opioids on users in recovery, and their families. By telling these stories of ordinary people, we want to put a human face on this crisis and help people realize that opioid addictions are happening to ordinary people all around them and not just stereotypical or marginalized groups.

You can support us by getting the word out. Reshare our content, and if you have any contacts in schools, let them know they can book us for a free presentation featuring one of our guest speakers.

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