Canada: Toronto Public Health, Unity Health Toronto, University Health Network collaborate to combat drug poisoning crisis

This will be the first time that acute care hospitals in Ontario and Public Health would offer supervised consumption services, adding a new way of providing essential harm reduction programming and care in Toronto.

“There is a great need for harm reduction and supervised consumption services across our city.  We are so pleased to announce this historic partnership between Toronto Public Health, Unity Health Toronto and University Health Network, with all of us working together in response to the ongoing drug poisoning crisis,” Dr. Eileen de Villa, Medical Officer of Health has said.

The new partnerships will see TPH’s long-standing harm reduction program, The Works, collaborate with St. Michael’s Hospital (part of Unity Health Toronto), and with Toronto Western Hospital (part of UHN). The specific community locations for the new sites will be determined over the next 12 to 24 months.

As outlined in TPH’s 2023 Population Health Profile, opioid overdoses reached record levels in 2021 and the number of deaths in Toronto due to opioid toxicity rose to 591.

Embedding community-based harm reduction services alongside hospital-based health care services provide clients access to a full continuum of care based on their needs resulting in overcoming factors, including stigma and discrimination, that prevent individuals from accessing services.

In 2022, more than 21,000 visits for supervised injection, preventing communicable diseases and providing health and social support were supported by The Works preventing more than 500 overdoses.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)