LiveLOUD Campaign Materials Available to Community Partners

Throughout Mental Health Awareness Month, which is observed every year during May, the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) is reminding residents and communities about the importance of advancing the state’s LiveLOUD (Life With Opioid Use Disorder) campaign, an initiative that supports coordinated efforts to confront and prevent the increase in opioid addiction across Connecticut.

The LiveLOUD website provides peer and community resources to individuals, information on Naloxone access and use, and a toolkit for partners to share LiveLOUD messages and materials.  Primary themes of the current campaign include education about addiction treatment options and the dangers of using drugs alone.

According to data from the Department of Public Health (DPH), Connecticut is among the top 10 states with the highest rate of opioid-related overdose deaths in the United States, and opioid use disorder (OUD) has spiked so dramatically in the past decade that Connecticut residents are now more likely to die from accidental drug overdose than they are from a motor vehicle accident.  In 2023 alone, Connecticut tracked 1,341 overdose deaths, most of which involved fentanyl, xylazine, or heroin.

The LiveLOUD campaign was launched by DMHAS in April 2019 and is an effort to prevent, discourage, and destigmatize opioid addiction with a series of supportive messages via social media, radio, transit, and billboard spots for those who are actively using heroin or misusing prescription opioids, their families, and communities.  These messages are also available in Spanish.