Chatham-Kent is moving forward to help those in the community suffering from substance abuse.
Chatham council was presented with a report Monday evening to implement the Chatham-Kent Community Drug Strategy, which was approved unanimously. $150,000 will be allocated from the Strategic Development Reserve in each of 2024 and 2025 for this initiative.
This two year strategy will be in place to help those impacted from substance use. Data has shown a substantial increase in opioid-related harms and deaths since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the presence of fentanyl, sedatives, and stimulants becoming more common in fatal opioid poisonings.
Chatham-Kent Public Health states that current data suggests that Chatham experiences higher rates of opioid-related hospitalizations, emergency department visits and deaths compared to the province. From 2018 to 2022, the number of deaths in Chatham-Kent from opioid poisoning increased from 5 to 37.
A four pillar approach was used to develop the strategy. This evidence-based approach has been widely used for drug strategy development across Canadian municipalities, and includes prevention, treatment and recovery, harm reduction, and community inclusion and safety.
Councillor Brock McGregor says this has been many years in the making.
"I know that two years won't be enough, so I hope that soon we will see this as a recommendation in our budget process to fund continually because I don't see the need changing, and there's a lot of really important work to be done."
Councillor Marjorie Crew says the work done in the community to combat this issue is phenomenal, but there's still more to be done.
"There's still people dying everyday, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and we need to do whatever we can to help these citizens in our community. They are just as important as someone who potentially could die of COVID. I like that we have a plan, and that this is a collaborative, and that this is something that we're going to measure."
Councillor Alysson Storey says she's thankful to those in the community working to address this issue.
"This is not easy work. I think we tend to forget that there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes with this group of vulnerable people that we are losing, all the time."
Work has been ongoing since 2019 to start this strategy. It was set to begin in 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic.
The effectiveness of the strategy will be reviewed on an on-going basis.
Recommendations regarding whether to continue the strategy and additional required funding will be brought back to council for further consideration prior to the end of this two-year period.