Tag: Harm reduction | CATIE Blog

Organizing our grief: A collaboration in response to the overdose crisis

August 1, 2023 • By Zoë Dodd, Theodore (ted) Kerr, Karie Liao, Fraser McCallum and Ellyn Walker

Organizing Our Grief: A Collaboration in Response to the Overdose Crisis is a free online publication that aims to capture and communicate a mobile public artwork and event series called Wish You Were Here, Wish Here Was Better, that made space for people impacted by the ongoing overdose and toxic drug crisis. Central to WYWH, WHWB was a mural by artist Les Harper, entitled ekisâkihitin (“I love you” in Cree), that features the images of 19 people from the Peel region who died due to overdoses. We published Organizing Our Grief as part of Living with Concepts, a series of...

Building Indigenous harm reduction responses

June 12, 2023 • By Denise Baldwin

How did you get involved in harm reduction? I first got involved in harm reduction when I was living on a reserve on Manitoulin Island and working at a youth centre there doing a lot of health promotion type work. I remember discussing HIV, hepatitis C and safer substance use with the youth – letting them know about not sharing straws to snort and things like that. But my experience in Toronto working with Oahas was what most informed my current work. My mentor in harm reduction work was LaVerne Monette, who was a Two-Spirit leader and activist who worked...

What kind of effect does opioid use disorder medication have on opioid cravings?

April 25, 2023 • By Matthew Bonn

Buprenorphine with naloxone (also known as Suboxone) and methadone are two of the most widely used medications prescribed as opioid agonist therapy (OAT) to treat opioid use disorders in Canada. The aim of OAT is to replace the use of unregulated opioids with a safe and legal therapeutic medication that can prevent opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms. This can in turn reduce the risk of overdose and other potential harms of opioid use disorder but it is not meant for everyone. In addition to these treatments, we also need greater access to safe supply, which is defined as a legal...

How peer advisory councils are improving access to harm reduction in communities across Manitoba

April 25, 2023 • By Shohan Illsley

CATIE spoke with Shohan Illsley, executive director of the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network, about the peer advisory councils they coordinate across the province, and how this model is helping improve access to harm reduction within rural and remote communities. What are peer advisory councils and how do they fit into the work of the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network? The Manitoba Harm Reduction Network is basically a network of networks. We have 11 networks in the province and nine of them work in rural and remote communities. Everywhere we have a network, we have a peer advisory council (PAC). PACs are...

Three important things to know about hepatitis C and HIV among people who inject drugs

April 25, 2023 • By Camille Arkell

In Canada, recent estimates show that people who inject drugs continue to be disproportionately affected by high rates of hepatitis C and HIV. They are also less likely to be tested, connected to care or receive treatment. To prevent hepatitis C and HIV, as well as improve outcomes for people who inject drugs, it is important to gain a better understanding of how changes in the drug supply and related trends impact vulnerability to these infections and how we can improve supports. To identify where these additional supports are most needed, the following three important points can help us to...

Making supervised consumption services work well for the communities they serve

October 10, 2022 • By Katherine Rudzinski, Andre Ceranto and Soo Chan Carusone

What aspects of SCS are most important for people who use drugs? And how do we know if SCS are working well for the communities they serve? These were questions we set out to answer as part of a community-based project in Toronto funded by the Ontario HIV Treatment Network.