General News

County of Simcoe examines opioid strategy

October 13, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The County of Simcoe is developing an approach to dealing with the current opioid crisis in the region.

During county council’s Sept. 13 committee of the whole meeting, a report was from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit regarding the Simcoe Muskoka Opioid Strategy (SMOS) final report for 2018 to 2020.

The SMOS was launched by the Health Unit with an aim to reduce opioid-related harm as a result of the significant growth in the rates of morbidity and mortality linked to problematic opioid use over the previous ten years.

Originally, the action plan was developed with all activities wrapping up in 2020. However, in March of that year, the COVID-19 global pandemic was declared.

It was discovered the pandemic greatly impacted people who use drugs locally, provincially, and nationally. Due to the increased use, SMOS activities continued into 2021.

The initial spike in deaths that occurred in 2017, both in the County and provincially, stabilized in Simcoe Muskoka from 2017 to 2019. However, the problem increased significantly in 2020 during the pandemic. This increase in opioid use occurred across the province. 

With the current need to tackle this situation, there is still progress to be made with the SMOS goals, and focus is needed on new priority areas that have emerged since the action plan was created.

Council will now examine what needs to be done to develop a fresh approach to a drug strategy.

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