Simcoe Muskoka opioid crisis trending in wrong direction: SMDHU

Andrea Robillard knows firsthand how severely opioids can impact one's life after having overdosed many times herself.

Robillard admits she struggled with addiction at an early age.

"I lost everything from my career, my house. My husband passed away from addiction. So to me, it's a very personal experience," she says. "I even planned out how I wanted to commit suicide."

After a family intervention and months of treatment, she was able to turn her life around and started working at an addiction centre to help others.

"I started volunteering, helping with the counsellors, to helping with housekeeping, and doing intervention because obviously someone who's gone through it, it's easier to relate and give that family support."

Robillard now works full-time as an intervention coordinator at 1000 Islands Addictions Treatment Centre and has helped dozens of people.

Unfortunately, not everyone is so lucky.

The local health unit says the trend in the region is headed in the wrong direction.

"There were 169 opioid-related deaths in Simcoe Muskoka in 2021, and that was 25 per cent higher than the 135 that we had in 2020," says Cathy Eisner, Simcoe Muskoka's Substance Use Injury Prevention Program public health nurse.

Eisner says the pandemic is primarily to blame for the rise in deaths and that no communities are left untouched.

"We're seeing loss of life in all of our communities across Simcoe Muskoka. Although some communities may be more impacted than others, it's not something only is affecting one area," she adds.

The Simcoe County branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association put in an application last fall to build a Safe Consumption Site in Barrie.

"That would provide a great service to Barrie where people would be able to bring their substances and use them under the supervision of harm reduction workers," Eisner says.

The city is still waiting for a decision by Health Canada and the Ministry of Health.

Eisner says other work is also being considered, including looking at safer supply options, reaching people through a mobile service and increasing access to opioid therapies.