Tag: Harm reduction | Page 9

Can Halifax open Atlantic Canada’s first legal overdose prevention site? Yes, we can!

August 14, 2019 • By Matthew Bonn

This blog post is a follow-up from an earlier post published on July 11, 2019. As I work on a new funding proposal, this statement strikes me: over 11,500 people in Canada have lost their lives as a result of opioid-related overdoses between January 2016 and December 2018 and we keep losing people every day. So many lives lost! And why is that? The evidence is clear that overdose prevention sites save lives! After I returned from a hands-on training in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver, one of the hardest hit places in the overdose crisis, it became even...

Can Halifax open Atlantic Canada’s first legal overdose prevention site?

July 11, 2019 • By Matthew Bonn

“Chasing the new is dangerous to society.” I read this quote at an activist art exhibition and it got me thinking about Halifax, my city, and of the group that I belong to. What if the old way of healthcare is actually dangerous to society at a whole?

Hepatitis C: From discovery to elimination in 40 years?

July 3, 2019 • By Melisa Dickie

We are in the midst of an incredibly dynamic moment in the world of medicine and public health. Hepatitis C research has progressed so rapidly that the virus could be eliminated as a public health threat only 40 years after its discovery in 1989.

In the eyes of Indigenous people: The link between colonialism and hepatitis C, and the need for historic trauma-informed care

April 15, 2019 • By Sadeem Fayed and Dr. Alexandra King

Why do First Nations, Métis and Inuit in Canada carry such an unfair burden of hepatitis C in Canada? It is estimated that hepatitis C among Indigenous people is five-times higher than non-Indigenous Canadians. In particular, Indigenous women represent almost half of all hepatitis C cases in their communities, a much higher proportion than among the non-Indigenous Canadian population. Young Indigenous people (24 years and under) represent 70% to 80% of hepatitis C infections among people who inject drugs in Canada.

Tackling the root causes of Canada’s overdose crisis

February 6, 2019 • By Gillian Kolla and Laurie Edmiston

Imagine 11 Canadians fatally poisoned every day, with the death toll climbing every year. Imagine hospitals across the country dealing with a 27% surge in admissions to treat these poisonings, and a 73% increase in emergency room visits in Ontario alone.

Gay men, substance use and harm reduction: it’s time to act

February 4, 2019 • By Dane Griffiths

Harm reduction and gay men’s HIV prevention could be considered two historic elements in our HIV response that have long stood separate from one another. Traditionally, HIV prevention with gay men focused on sexual risk, while harm reduction focused on risks associated with injection drug use. Both approaches have evolved over the decades and some might argue that safer sex is a form of harm reduction, but in the context of drug use, there has been little focus given to harm reduction in the context of gay men’s sexual health.