By Cecilia Nasmith/Northumberland 89.7 FM/Today’s Northumberland
More questions than answers was the result at a presentation on the local drug poisoning crisis at December’s meeting of the Northumberland County council Community Health Committee, but the presents will return to the regular county council session Dec. 18 to try to answer some of those questions.
The delegation setting out a report on the local drug poisoning crisis at December’s meeting of Northumberland County council’s Community Health Committee was invited to make a presentation at the regular council session of Dec. 18 to answer some of the questions it raised.
The report was a collaboration between the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit and the HKLN (Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Northumberland) Drug Strategy.
It led off with statistics from HKPR Epidemiologist Vidya Sunil, including death trends in Northumberland – 15 in 2018, 8 in 2019, 14 in 2020, 20 in 2021, 10 in 2022 and 12 in 2023.
In the health unit’s regional statistics for 2023, Northumberland County accounted for 42.1% of opioid-related emergency-department visits, 17.1% of opioid-related hospitalizations and 33.3% of opioid-related deaths.
Sunil spoke of the survey made of people with lived experience of using drugs made between December 2021 and March 2024 that drew 146 responses (slightly more than half of them male). Of that number, 120 admitted to using drugs more than once a week – in some cases, daily. Crystal meth was the drug of choice for 104, with fentanyl the depressant of choice for 102.
Key needs identified by a majority included a safe and secure place to live, treatment, community support, drug-testing kits, better access to harm-reduction supplies and improved naloxone distribution.
The four pillars to address this situation were identified as prevention and education, harm reduction, treatment and community safety.
Ten recommendations were also offered
1 – Engage people with lied and living experience, and include them at the table when formulating policy
2 – Advocate for a provincial drug strategy task force with a paid co-ordinator
3 – Advocate for access to real-time data on drug poisonings
4 – Invest in upstream prevention and early interventions
5 – Proactively address stigma within your organization
6 – Expand harm-reduction services provincially
7 – Expand mobile outreach, harm reduction and medical treatment
8 – Build capacity in the HKLN Drug Strategy network
9 – Establish direct-access pathways to care, withdrawal management and treatment
10 – Pursue evidence-based and health-centred diversion programs
HKPR Health Promoter Kate Hall pointed to Kawartha Lakes, which has an addictions specialist who goes out with police crisis units, and called for funding for key positions like this – so many of these positions basically survive from grant to grant, she said.
Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland asked a few high-level questions (such as what evidence-based means and how recent are their data), allowing that they might not have the answers handy. The motion passed by the committee included an invitation back for Dec. 18, where further questions can be asked at the regular session of council.
