The opioid crisis

It’s been called the epidemic in the shadow of a pandemic. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the number of opioid-related deaths in Alberta has risen to an average of more than 100 per month. In response, clinician and social scientists at the O’Brien Institute have tackled this public health emergency from many fronts, such as through real-time research, through public awareness and by supporting frontline healthcare workers.

As COVID-19 raged, stealing the focus and resources required to stem the human cost exacted by the opioid crisis, the Institute’s Street CCRED (Community Capacity in Research, Education and Development) initiative mobilized its networks – and the expertise within them – to facilitate the training of dozens of community and front line care providers on the use of naloxone kits, an effective intervention in preventing opioid poisoning deaths. Street CCRED and other Institute members have also tried to address the societal impact of the crisis by becoming keen, public spokespeople for the epidemic, and for those most affected by it.

Members, such as Bonnie Larson, MD, have become fixtures in provincial and national media coverage, appearing in radio talk shows, television interviews and in op-ed submissions to magazines and national publications, where they have raised awareness of this epidemic’s extent, and the critical need of a holistic, harm reduction approach to this challenge.

Knowledge exchange around the opioid crisis on the part of Institute members has gone beyond active participation in the media discourse. It has also involved community engagement in the form of virtual events. One such example is the collaboration between the O’Brien institute and Street CCRED, and community partners, to host a virtual screening of a locally produced documentary short film titled “Harm: Alberta’s Preventable Overdose Crisis”. The documentary contextualized the thousands of lives affected by the epidemic, while telling the story of those trying to save them. A panel made up of members from across the country, and attendees from Europe, the United States and Australia, gathered virtually following the film to explore the nuances of harm reduction, treatment, and recovery.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Jackson, PhD, studied the efficacy of Alberta’s Injectable Opioid Agonist Treatment (iOAT) program, just as the program was about to be defunded in early 2021. Her work showed that the program was not only effective in saving lives, but in how patients have been able to move past their dependency and into a more normal life. Although no longer named as such, the services provided by the iOAT are now funded through to 2023.

Institute researchers continue to work to gather the insights necessary to effectively face this epidemic head on, such as investigating everything from how to address needle waste and supply safety, to the unique challenges besieging First Nations and how to use social media to eradicate the stigma that has been built around this crisis.