The University of Windsor is playing a part in a roundtable that is bringing the best ideas together to fight the opioid crisis.
Anne Snowdon is Chair of the World Health Innovation Network in partnership with the Cross-Border Health Foundation and others — she'll be in Washington in September for the Canada-US Roundtable on Strategies to Combat the Opioid Crisis
Snowdon spoke with AM800's Patty Handysides on The Afternoon News and says it will take a collaborative effort to overcome an issue that is only getting worse.
"When Canada, sharing the largest border in the world with the U.S., starts to work together collaboratively on solving such a tough, devastating and complex challenge we're far more likely to make progress and achieve some positive outcomes," she says.
Sarnia is an example of what a collaborative effort can achieve, according to Snowden. She says the municipality pulled together to cut wait times to seek help for those dealing with mental-health and addiction from 19-days to just over one-day.
"If they could do it, maybe all southern-Ontario could do that, maybe northern-Michigan," says Snowden. "It's a very small, but one of many great examples, of why we're putting everyone in that room to say okay, how can we work together, learn from each other and continue to collaborate?"
The Centre for Disease Control reports more than 42,000 opioid related deaths occurred in the U.S. in 2016, with the Public Health Agency of Canada reporting more than 4,000 deaths in 2017.
Snowdon will facilitate the Bright Lights: Innovation in Prevention, Treatment and Recovery portion of the roundtable on Sept. 24.
— with files from AM800's Patty Handysides and Kathie McMann.