Health workers question $222 million opioid funding distribution
'Absolutely overwhelmed by need,' says outreach worker in Waterloo Region
Some regional health workers have questions about where the provincial commitment of $222 million over three years to fight the opioid crisis will be spent.
Eric Hoskins, the Minister of Health, said he is "stricken by the magnitude of the opioid crisis" on Aug. 29 when he announced funding for things such as addictions treatment and increasing front-line harm-reduction outreach workers.
Adrienne Crowder, manager of the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy, said she has questions about the distribution of funds across regions and services.
"There is a disproportionate opioid use across the province, and will the money land where it's needed? Will it be spread uniformly?" Crowder told Andrea Bellemare, guest host of The Morning Edition on CBC K-W.
The announcement came a day after more than 700 health care workers delivered a petition calling on Kathleen Wynne to declare a provincial state of emergency due to an increase in overdose deaths.
Crowder, who was a signatory, said while the additional funding shows there's a "listening ear in the Ministry of Health," she still wants a formal declaration of emergency because it helps create a provincially coordinated plan involving public health units to fight the problem.
"Having public health emergency would both increase the rapidity and urgency with which the response to opioid issues would be addressed," she said.
Rapid access to services
An example of providing rapid access to care is the Rapid Access Addictions Clinic in Guelph, which launched as a pilot program in June and will formally open in the fall.
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Crowder said the clinic is able to provide fast, appropriate care because they link addiction services with medical services.
"It links someone's experience when they come in with an overdose at a hospital, back into community treatment in a care pathway that is a solid pathway for them," Crowder said.
She mentioned the success of the clinic is shown through low no-show rates for follow-up appointments.
The clinic operates out of the Guelph location of Sanguen Health Centre, and work is underway to bring at least one more clinic to Waterloo region in the near future.
Need to widen the focus
Another one of Sanguen's outreach programs is a community health van, which they drive to communities in Waterloo region and provide harm reduction services, naloxone kit training, counselling and even testing for Hepatitis C and HIV.
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"What we're finding is that we're absolutely getting slammed by people who have other health issues related to their drug use" including abscesses and wounds from using drugs, said Violet Umanetz, Sanguen's manager of outreach.
"There's a lot of physical damage that can happen, brain damage can happen," she said.
Umanetz said while it's important to talk about the high number of overdose fatalities, it's also important not to forget about the people who survive overdoses with significant physical damage.
"It's not just that people overdose, survive, and life continues as usual."
Outreach workers overwhelmed
Umanetz said there's a high need for more outreach workers in Waterloo region, and she would like to see more funding to make it happen.
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"The reality is the outreach workers that I have working for me are absolutely overwhelmed by need, just the magnitude of what we're up against," she said.
One of the challenges they face in the region is the sheer size of their coverage area, compared to the size of her small team.
Umanetz said they've given out just over 1400 Naloxone kits in the Waterloo area since January this year. The number doesn't include those in public health units or pharmacies.
"I would say probably close to 40 per cent of those are refill kits, that have been used on overdoses," she said.
"We know there's a lot of people that we're still not reaching, which is scary."
With files from Jackie Sharkey