Emergency, health crews eyeing public alert system for opioid overdoses

The Community Drug Strategy in Sudbury is developing a public alert system which would monitor suspected opioid overdoses.

Shana Calixte, Public Health Sudbury's manager of addictions and the co-chair of the Community Drug Strategy, said they are calling the system an early aberration response system, or 'ears' for short.

It works by identifying when there are potential "surges" in suspected overdose cases in the community, Calixte said.

"[The alert system will] gather intelligence we get from emergency medical services," she said. "Greater Sudbury Police Services provides us with data as well as on the ground partners like Réseau ACCESS Network and Sudbury Action Center for Youth."

"[We' will be] asking them about what intelligence or data that they might have, then putting that together in a system to let us know if we need to let the community know about potential dangers that are out there."

The health unit does not keep numbers on overdoses.

However, Sudbury's Deputy Chief of Paramedic Services, Melissa Rooney says in December, EMS reported 28 suspected overdoses, compared to six in 2017.

Calixte says even with the increase in numbers, the encouraging news is that in designing a system for the northeast, there are already similar systems in place across North America.

"For instance we we monitor illnesses in schools. Flu," Calixte said.  "There's also a system that was in the U.S. called Syndrome X surveillance which looked at potential bioterrorism."

"These are all systems that allow us to warn our community about whether there are potential harms...based on the collection of information and then putting that together to make a good judgment on whether or not we should let the community know," she said.

In Sudbury, a similar situation occurred in August 2018, when the health unit alerted the public to suspected purple heroin in the community.

"I think we're getting better at identifying what substances are out there and also when to alert people of of a potential harm," she said. "EMS is doing a really good job at tracking some of that information, and our partners are doing a really good job at speaking to folks in the street to get their information and also bring it back."

Calixte said she hopes the system also helps reduce some of the stigma and discrimination against users.

"I think it's important for us to realize this is a whole community situation," she said. "I think what's coming down the pipe is that we're going to be a little bit more resourceful around this and a little bit more open minded about it so that we can make sure that we prevent deaths in our community."