Pubdate: Sat, 12 Jan 2013
Source: Record, The (Kitchener, CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact:   http://news.therecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/225
Author: Dianne Wood

LOCAL CONFERENCE WILL TACKLE GROWING PROBLEM OF OPIOID OVERDOSES

WATERLOO REGION - Health care providers from 40 Ontario cities will
join a local conference next week on how to prevent accidental deaths
from opioid overdoses.

"It's a hot event," said Michael Parkinson of the Waterloo Region
Crime Prevention Council, one of three organizations hosting the Jan.
14 conference, titled Opioids, Overdose Prevention and Substitution
Therapies for Opioid Dependence.

"We knew there was an appetite for getting serious about reducing
accidental overdoses, but it exceeded our expectations."

Forty-five people will attend the presentation in person at the Langs
Community Health Centre. Many more who can't attend the Cambridge
event in person will take part via video conference.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Ashok Krishnamurthy, a Toronto doctor
trained in addictions medicine.

Krishnamurthy worked in Vancouver's downtown east side and runs an
inner-city addictions consultation service in Toronto.

He'll talk about overdose prevention and the importance of making
naloxone - an antidote to revive people from an opioid overdose -
easily available in Ontario communities.

"It's a story of a health professional asking the health profession to
do something - anything - to tackle the third leading cause of
accidental death in Ontario," Parkinson said. "And when an MD talks,
people listen in a new way.

"We're providing an opportunity for primary care practitioners ... to
reduce the extent and costs associated with accidental
overdoses..."

Heroin use has increased in many Ontario communities since the Ontario
government removed OxyContin from the market last spring because of
concerns the drug was being abused. The painkiller resulted in
addiction for about three per cent of its users.

Many addicts switched to heroin and the prescription painkiller
Fentanyl after the de-listing. Communities started to see people
overdosing on these drugs.

Waterloo Regional Police reported nine cases of suspected heroin
overdose, six of them fatal, last year. Waterloo Region's public
health unit issued a bulletin alerting agencies working with drug
addicts about the risk of overdose.

The crime prevention council has established a drug strategy for the
region and hosted a drug forum in response to recent overdose deaths.

Monday's presentation is also being hosted by Preventing Overdose
Waterloo-Wellington, a grassroots community group led by Parkinson,
and the Langs Community Health Centre in Cambridge.

Parkinson said not all people dying of accidental overdoses are
addicts or illicit drug users.

Ministry of Health statistics from 2007 show overdoses to be the third
leading cause of accidental death in Ontario.

Parkinson wants to see data collected from hospitals and coroners
across the province to keep track of accidental overdose deaths.

"To date, there hasn't been a lot of interest in that," he said. "If
there's a heroin epidemic going on, you wouldn't know about it because
there's an absence of data."

Waterloo Region's medical officer of health, Liana Nolan,
agrees.

"It's very difficult to get firm statistics," she
said.

But she believes there's been an increase in overdose deaths locally
because of anecdotal reports from police and emergency medical services.

The Ontario Health Ministry says it gets regular updates on
opioid-related emergency department visits and hospital admissions, as
well as deaths from the coroner's office.

Parkinson said Canada is far behind the United States in "tackling
accidental overdoses."

A number of "blue chip organizations" in the U.S. - such as the
American Public Health Association - support overdose prevention
programs, such as naloxone training for care practitioners, and
distributing naloxone to lay people to be used like an EpiPen for
allergies, he said.

"Clearly overdose prevention and naloxone initiatives work south of
the border. The same tools can work in Ontario and across Canada."

The health unit is discussing harm-reduction programming in the region
and the possibility of making naloxone more available.

"We'll have to figure out how we want to move forward," Nolan said.
"We're all concerned about prevention of accidental overdoses."
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D