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Opioid Awareness Committee hosts Substance Abuse Day information event

August 22, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Substance abuse in the region is a serious concern.

The Opioid Awareness Committee hosted a Substance Use Awareness Day event at Riverdale Park in Alliston on Thursday, August 15, to bring information to the public about community resources that are available to help those with substance abuse issues. 

The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported that for the week starting Aug. 4, there were 22 suspected overdose emergency visits in the region. The previous week there were 34.

For that same week, there were four suspected drug-related deaths, two more than the previous week.

The event was attended by several local health-related organizations as well as members of the OPP, and local fire departments.

Information was available about addiction services in the region as well as mental health and crisis services

In addition, housing and shelter services were on hand, including S.H.I.F.T., a temporary housing shelter, My Sisters Place, for women in distress, and CONTACT Community Services.

“Today we are trying to raise awareness about services in our communities, to address substance abuse and the current drug toxicity crisis,” explained Cathy Eisener, co-chair of the Opioid Awareness Committee, and public health nurse with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. “Here today, we have paramedics, the fire department, the police, and the Krasman Centre, which has a great peer outreach program. We want the public to come out, because the public has a lot of questions about this. They want to know what’s being done when they see open drug use on the street. This is an opportunity to ask those questions. We have information about prevention.”

Visitors were able to meet representatives from local health organizations and ask questions. CONTACT Community Services was also distributing naloxone kits. Naloxone, when administered to a person suffering from an opioid overdose, can temporarily reverse the effects of the overdose so a person can be transported to a hospital for treatment.

The overdose crisis is worse this year than anticipated.

“Our numbers (of overdoses) is higher this year than last year,” Cathy explained. “We weren’t expecting this to happen. We had a slight decrease last year. In 2023 there was one person every 63 hours who lost their life to this crisis. This is why we need to get the information out there.”

The event was well attended by many residents who were looking for information about the crisis and to find out where they could turn to help friends and family in need.

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