MANITOULIN––The latest data shows that opioid-related deaths continue to rise in Ontario. There were 1,053 opioid-related deaths in Ontario from January to October 2017, compared with 694 during the same time period in 2016, which represents a 52 percent increase. From January to December 2017, there were 7,658 emergency department visits related to opioid overdoses compared with 4,453 during the same period in 2016, a 72 percent increase.
Data provided by the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network shows the number of opioid users and opioid maintenance therapy users in Manitoulin District increased between 2011 and 2015, although opioid-related emergency department visits decreased between 2011 and 2014. Manitoulin District ranks eighth out of 49 in Ontario for rate of opioid users (2015) and opioid-related emergency department visits (2014), second for rate of opioid maintenance therapy users (2015), 12th in rate of opioid-related hospital admissions (2014) and 15th in rate of opioid-related deaths (2013).
Ontario is expanding access to addiction and harm reduction services across the province to help combat the crisis, with more than 85 mental health and addiction providers across the province expanding treatments services and supports for opioid use disorder. Twelve of these providers are targeting supports for youth. Over 20 providers are investing in withdrawal management services in Ontario. More than 30 communities will also benefit from new or expanded Rapid Access Addiction Medicine (RAAM) clinics.
In January, the Northeast Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN) launched its Opioid Strategy at a meeting of its Regional Mental Health and Addictions Advisory Council, which was instrumental in developing the strategy and will work with Opioid Task Forces within each of the North East LHIN’s Sub-Regions —Algoma, Sudbury/Parry Sound/Manitoulin, Cochrane, James and Hudson Bay Coast, and Nipissing/Temiskaming to implement the strategy.
The NE LHIN is investing $1.65 million in base funding across Northeastern Ontario to increase access to treatment and care within NE LHIN communities.
This funding will expand and create RAAM Clinics that provide an addictions treatment pathway between the clinic and different places where the client is likely to seek care such as emergency departments, primary care providers, mental health and addiction agencies and withdrawal management programs. It will also enhance and expand Community Based Withdrawal Management Programs, a recommendation made to the NE LHIN by Dr. Brian Rush in his ‘North East LHIN Addiction Services Review.’ Dr. Rush noted that while there are many residential treatment programs, more community day programs are needed as they bring care closer to home, allowing participants to continue to live at home.
The NE LHIN’s Strategy uses a “hub and spoke” model, in which RAAM Clinics are located within each sub-region’s urban centres (the hub) with links (spokes) to outlying areas. As one of the highest users of telemedicine with 300 Ontario Telemedicine Network sites across the region, this strategy leverages virtual expertise to ensure equitable access to services for Northerners.
Sudbury’s Health Sciences North (HSN) has piloted a RAAM Clinic for more than a year. With this funding it will extend its hours of operation to five days a week and will provide outreach supports to West Parry Sound, Manitoulin and Espanola. HSN also received funding to assume a regional role for research, data collection and regional outreach.
Over the next three years, Ontario will invest more than $222 million to combat the opioid crisis in Ontario, including expanding harm reduction services, hiring more front-line staff and improving access to addictions supports across the province.
