{"id":206899,"date":"2019-03-26T03:19:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T07:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=206899"},"modified":"2019-03-26T03:20:03","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T07:20:03","slug":"more-than-600-ontarians-died-from-opioid-overdoses-in-first-six-month-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/03\/26\/more-than-600-ontarians-died-from-opioid-overdoses-in-first-six-month-last-year\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 600 Ontarians died from opioid overdoses in first six month last year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TORONTO \u2014 More than 600 Ontarians died from opioid overdoses\nin the first six months of last year, new numbers reveal, as overdose\nprevention sites await word on whether they can continue to operate in the\nprovince beyond Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public Health Ontario statistics were quietly updated last\nweek to show that 629 people in Ontario died from opioid-related causes from\nJanuary to June of 2018. That is 80 more deaths than during the same period in\n2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data is also now available for the first nine months of 2018\nfor hospitalizations and emergency department visits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were 6,688 opioid-related emergency department visits\nin the province, up from 5,909 during the same time frame last year, and 1,544\nhospitalizations, which is down from 1,623 from the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017 in total, 1,261 people died from an opioid overdose \u2014\nup from 867 people in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
In 2017 in total, 1,261 people died from an opioid overdose \u2014 up from 867 people in 2016. (File Photo<\/a>: ep_jhu\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NDP health critic France Gelinas said under the previous\nLiberal government, the province often used to publicly announce when new information\non opioid deaths and hospital visits was available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith this government, everything that has to do with mental\nhealth, with addiction, seems to be back into the dark age when it was taboo,\u201d\nshe said. \u201cPeople need to know that there are people dying all the time, that\nwe have very good prevention strategies in Ontario that are about to run out of\nfunding again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health Minister Christine Elliott is reviewing applications\nfor 21 sites that will be established with $31 million in annual funding under\na new overdose prevention site model planned by the government, to be called\nconsumption treatment sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Existing overdose prevention sites could apply to continue\nto operate under the new model, and their licences had been set to expire on\nJan. 31. The government then extended those licences to March 31 as the\napplications were still being reviewed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was expected that approved sites would transition in the\nspring to the new model that includes a focus on treatment and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harm reduction worker Zoe Dodd said it has been hard working\nmonth to month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can’t just keep getting extensions,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s so\nstressful to be working in this environment of uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a temporary Toronto site that was up and running for a\nyear, 251 overdoses were reversed, Dodd said. In January and February alone\nthis year, her overdose prevention site reversed 173 overdoses, Dodd said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During last year’s election campaign, Premier Doug Ford said\nhe was opposed to overdose prevention sites, but Elliott said the evidence\ndemonstrated the sites are necessary, reducing drug-related deaths and lowering\nthe rate of public drug use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After she presented the findings of her review to the\npremier, they agreed that the services were important.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 More than 600 Ontarians died from opioid overdoses in the first six months of last year, new numbers …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":187374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-allison-jones","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206902,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206899\/revisions\/206902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}