Tag: Harm reduction | CATIE Blog

Protecting ourselves, protecting each other: The current reality of GHB in the PnP scene and solutions to keep our friends alive

June 10, 2024 • By Jordan Bond-Gorr

Warning: this blog post describes a fatal overdose. This content will be upsetting to some of our readers. For support around grief and loss, please contact Healing Hearts Canada. Connor shouldn’t have died alone in his room. Left by his hookup, face down on his bed after passing out, he choked on his own vomit. His death was preventable: putting him in the recovery position and staying with him could have saved his life. Connor was the first in a series of recent deaths in Toronto’s party and play (PnP) scene attributed to GHB and its substitutes, GBL and...

INHSU 2023: Global lessons for the health of people who use drugs

November 10, 2023 • By Christopher Hoy

In October, CATIE attended INHSU 2023, the 11th International Conference on Health and Hepatitis Care in Substance Users. This leading international conference brought experts from around the world to Geneva, Switzerland, where they discussed the latest in research, programs and policy on hepatitis and the health of people who use drugs. While there, CATIE spoke with presenters and attendees and asked them to share key messages from the conference. Watch the short videos below and catch up on some of the topics discussed at INHSU 2023. Christopher Hoy is the associate director of Ontario hepatitis C and harm reduction...

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...