The Board of Health received an update on the development of the Community Drug Strategy from Hastings Prince Edward Public Health on Wednesday.
In a presentation by Victoria Law, a Social Determinants of Health Public Health Nurse with HPEPH, she outlined what has been done since work began on facilitating the strategy in the fall of 2023.
Framework on the strategy is based on the Canada Drug and Substances Strategy.
It is broken down into four sections, prevention and education, substance use services and supports, evidence and substance controls.
The initial focus of the strategy would be on unregulated substances. The strategy would be implemented for five years from 2024 to 2029.
It would take what it calls a humanistic approach where it stipulates that people who use drugs should be met with supportive practices.
During this time, the City of Belleville declared a State of Emergency around the overdose crisis leading to the Health Commons Solutions Lab to be brought in to identify needs in the community and help provide a case to the province for necessary funding.
Community engagement sessions took place with municipalities in the Quinte region between March 1 and March 5, including chats with representatives in Belleville, Quinte West, Prince Edward County, North and Centre Hastings as well as an Indigenous-focused session on Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.
Some of the common themes coming out of the sessions are stigma reduction and awareness, youth substance use prevention, municipal advocacy and policy development, improving access to treatment and care, and reducing Emergency Department visits and overdoses.
There are plans to have engagement sessions with those who have lived the experience but those were put on hold due to what was described as “engagement fatigue” with the intended audience of the sessions due to the ongoing coverage of the overdose crisis. The group is planning to revisit these sessions in late 2024.
As for next steps, there will be a focus on the prevention and education aspect of the community strategy for now. It is also waiting on the outcome of the proposal from Health Commons Solutions Lab.
