By Josh Hall

"most comprehensive in canada"

Alberta launches new system to track drug overdose deaths

Dec 18, 2020 | 5:27 PM

The Government of Alberta is launching what it calls the most comprehensive opioid surveillance system in the country.

Up-to-date data on deaths and EMS calls will now be shared monthly as opposed to the traditional quarterly surveillance reports through the Alberta Substance Use Surveillance System.

Premier Jason Kenney said Friday that overdose deaths peaked in July and have since trended downward, adding that COVID-19 restrictions have had unintended consequences for those struggling with addictions.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is not the only public health crisis in Alberta. Thousands of Albertans continue to battle mental health and addictions issues, often times made more difficult by public health measures, and Alberta’s government is firmly committed to being there to help them recover,” said Kenney. “This new data system will give us better insights into addiction issues, help us respond with better measures to support recovery, and ultimately support our overall goal of protecting lives and livelihoods through this pandemic and beyond.”

Asked how a new way of reporting numbers will ultimately help ease the opioid crisis and help individuals facing addictions, Kenney admitted the impact won’t be immediate.

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“This will be enormously helpful to all the different social service organizations, treatment centres, and people working in addictions counselling because they’ll be able to see with much more precision what exactly is going on, what the trends are, which new drugs are emerging as posing a threat, and which regions of the province or neighbourhoods in the big cities are most heavily affected.”

In July, overdose deaths peaked in the province at 142, the premier noted. They declined 33 per cent in October. January through October 2020, there were 906 deaths linked to opioids in the province, more than the 627 last year, and record 806 in 2018.

Stacey Carmichael, executive director at Turning Point, which has operated Red Deer’s overdose prevention site since October 2018, agrees that the new reporting could have a long-term net positive impact.

“We can’t sugarcoat the numbers. We also can’t blame CERB or COVID-19 because that would be fundamentally covering up how they all intertwine and interact. This is a complex issue and at the end of the day these are people we’re talking about,” she says. “While I applaud efforts in assisting people with substance use disorder, there remains a significant amount of people who use drugs recreationally. The guy doing cocaine once a year on New Year’s Eve can die too.”

Carmichael says she knows of at least three overdose-related deaths in Red Deer this month.

Thirty-six deaths in the city were attributed to non-pharmaceutical opioids (NPO), which includes fentantyl and carfentanil, between January and October.

That’s up from the 17 originally reported for Jan. to June, though that number has since been corrected to 18. There were 18 total in 2019, 46 in 2018, 23 in 2017 and 24 in 2016.

The 10-month rate of NPO-related deaths for Red Deer is 34.7, up from 30.8 over the first six months of the year. Red Deer’s rate remains the second highest in the province behind only Lethbridge.

Accidental deaths from all substances in Red Deer total 42 through October 2020. There were also 19 deaths from methamphetamines, eight from cocaine, eight from alcohol and zero from benzodiazepines.

Central Zone has had 78 NPO-related deaths up to the end of October, compared to 43 all of last year. That’s equivalent to a rate of 19.3, fourth highest of the five health zones operated by Alberta Health Services.

Provincial initiatives announced in this area earlier in 2020 include $25 million to build five therapeutic communities throughout Alberta focused on holistic addiction recovery (including in Red Deer), and more than $53 million for more phone, online and in-person mental health and addiction recovery support.

The new site is available now.