The Ontario Government has announced additional support for those involved with the opioid crisis.
The Minister of Health and Long-term Care Dr. Eric Hoskins and Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams announced over the next three years more than $222 million dollars would be invested into Ontario’s Strategy to Prevent Opioid Addiction and Overdose. This money will build on existing initiatives like adding more front-line harm-reduction workers, expanding the supply of Naloxone, distributing the overdose reversal drug through emergency departments, expanding Rapid Access Addiction Medicine Clinics across the province and expanding proven harm-reduction services like needle exchange programs or supervised injection sites.
The Ontario Government say the money will also be used to create new approaches to battling opioid addiction, like partnering with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and working with indigenous communities to enhance culturally appropriate mental health and awareness programs. A brief breakdown of where some of the money will be going provided by the Ontario Government includes; $15 million to support health care providers on appropriate pain management and opioid prescribing, over $7.5 million to increase addiction treatment in primary care, $70 million on long-term support for people who have addiction disorders, $9 million to add more front-line harm-reduction outreach workers and $20 million over two years for specialized support to Indigenous communities starting in 2018-2019.
The Manager of Healthy Living and Development with the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit Claire Farella says this area is actually ahead of the curve. She says that when the Community Harm Reduction Steering Committee first heard about fentanyl they developed one of the province’s first Opioid Response Plans. That plan has since been circulated to a number of different communities in Ontario. The response plan includes working with schools so they can administer Naloxone kits, community forums to raise awareness about the drug and a Cluster Action Plan, in cooperation with local emergency services, which deals with a number of overdoses at one location.
She points out that the opioid crisis is not a new thing in Canada but illicit fentanyl has brought the issue to the public’s attention. While Leeds, Grenville and Lanark won’t see the same number of overdoses as major metropolitan areas local trends do indicate an increase in opioid use. According to Farella they have seen an increase in the number of people visiting hospital for opioid related issues and an increase in the number of suspected overdose deaths.
Farella adds the Health Unit find people seeking help for opioid addiction are between the ages of 25 to 44 and older than 65. She says this further proves how wrong the stereotypes surrounding opioid addiction are because anyone that has been prescribed a pain killer can end up addicted.
