Every year on August 31, International Overdose Awareness Day brings people around the world together to remember lives lost to overdose, support the families and communities left behind, and focus attention on what can be done to prevent future deaths.

The 2026 theme, “25 Years On. Still Needed.,” is both sobering and hopeful. Twenty-five years after the first International Overdose Awareness Day, overdose continues to affect families and communities around the world. But overdose is preventable, and access to compassionate, evidence-based treatment remains an important part of the solution.

At New Season Treatment Center, that mission extends far beyond a single awareness day.

What Our 2025 Outcomes Tell Us

New Season’s 2025 Annual Report documents the scale of care being provided across our communities, but some of the most meaningful numbers are not about organizational growth. They are about what happens in patients’ lives after they enter treatment.

In 2025, New Season delivered more than 393,000 counseling sessions and 135,000 medical evaluations. Among patients measured since intake, New Season reported a 65.02% reduction in opioid use (after three years of treatment), along with a 31.09% improvement in employment and an 8.83% improvement in stable housing.

Those outcomes matter because recovery is about more than reducing opioid use. It can mean returning to work, rebuilding relationships, finding stability and creating a life in which recovery can continue.

As Jessica Matthews, now Chief Operating Officer of New Season, previously explained in Beyond the JAMA Study: How New Season Is Redefining Retention in Opioid Treatment:

“Improving retention means addressing the whole person—not just the diagnosis—and ensuring care is accessible, supportive, and responsive to their needs.”

Making Treatment Easier to Reach

The Annual Report also illustrates how access to opioid use disorder treatment continues to evolve.

During 2025, the number of patients using telecounseling increased 49%, while New Season continued expanding telehealth, mobile treatment services, primary care integration and Intensive Outpatient Programs. The organization also secured more than $10.6 million through grants and settlements to support patient programs, services and community initiatives.

Each of these efforts addresses a simple but important reality: treatment only works when people can reach it and remain connected to it.

Dr. Chip Roberts, Corporate Medical Director at New Season, has previously described Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) as “one of the most effective interventions for opioid use disorder.”

Medication, counseling, medical care and ongoing support can give people living with opioid use disorder another path forward. New Season’s approach to MAT combines medication with behavioral counseling and individualized care under the guidance of a physician.

Awareness Is Important. Action Saves Lives.

International Overdose Awareness Day asks us to remember those who have been lost. It should also challenge us to consider what we can do for those who are still here.

We can reduce stigma. We can talk openly about opioid addiction and opioid use disorder as treatable medical conditions. We can make evidence-based care easier to access. And we can remind people struggling with addiction—and the families who love them—that seeking treatment can be the beginning of something different.

On August 31, we remember. Every day, we keep working to make recovery possible.

If you or someone you love is struggling with opioid use disorder, New Season Treatment Center is here to help. Learn more about beginning treatment, find a New Season treatment center near you, or call 1-877-284-7074 to learn more about starting treatment.