The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit says community partnerships and a range of harm reduction strategies remain critical as the region continues to respond to substance use and overdose challenges.
During the health unit’s most recent board meeting, the Windsor-Essex Community Substance Strategy, known as WECOSS, released its 2025 Annual Report outlining efforts across the region to address substance use through prevention, treatment, and harm reduction.
The annual report highlights major outreach efforts over the past year, including anti-stigma campaigns that reached more than 42,000 people, nearly 34,000 safer consumption interactions, and close to 5,000 naloxone kits being distributed.
The report also points to expanded treatment supports and training frontline workers helping people living with opioid use disorder. Two opioid alerts were issued locally in 2025 after spikes in fentanyl-related overdoses in August and December.
The report also highlights partnerships involving nurses, police, EMS workers, and social workers conducting outreach throughout the community.
Eric Nadalin, WECHU’s Director of Public Health Programs, says the report reflects years of collaboration between community partners.
“We have a lot of outreach teams going on through things like the Nurse Police team in partnership with Windsor Police Services and Windsor Regional Hospital. We’ve got partnerships with Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare. We’ve got social workers going out with nurses and with EMS providers to be able to go and educate people on how to keep themselves safe.”
He says harm reduction programs remain essential locally.
“We’re recognizing that not everybody is at a state in their recovery journey where they are abstinent from substance use and we hope to work with those who are still actively using substances to move them towards recovery. But for those who are still actively using, we want to make sure that we provide them with the best possible methods to consume as safe as possible.”
Nadalin says people with lived experience are playing a major role in shaping the region’s response.
“We subscribe fully to the ‘nothing about us without us’ sort of philosophy with our WECOSS programming, and with our programming here at the WECHU. So, we want to make sure that everything that we make that is targeted towards a specific population has their voice embedded to make sure that it can be as effective and inclusive as possible.”
WECOSS was formed in 2018 and brings together organizations, including the WECHU, Essex-Windsor EMS, hospitals, police, shelters, and treatment providers.
In mid-March, the WECHU board of directors approved the 2026-2030 Action Plan to address substance use and overdose challenges in Windsor-Essex.