The Safer Opioid Supply (SOS) program, run by the London InterCommunity Health Center, shows positive results in customer retention and a reduction in overdose.
The study on the SOS program showed that customers reported significant decreases in fentanyl use, as well as in the use of other street-acquired drugs such as crystal methamphetamine.
The program that began funding the Substance Abuse and Addiction Program used a harm reduction approach to address health risks such as overdose associated with contaminated drugs.
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Those participating in the program receive prescriptions for pharmaceutical opioids to replace drugs obtained from the local drug market, and are affiliated with a team of health care and outreach workers.
“Damage means you have to center the voices of the people you serve, and I have learned that a lot of drug use can be linked to poverty, classicism, colonialism, capitalism, structural violence and racism,” said Dr. Andrea Sereda said. program.
“We have worked hard to make sure we grow the program with drug users really central to our team.”
Sereda said their program is believed to be the first in Canada to offer people a safe consumption option to take home, with other regions adopting a similar model since then.
Since April 2020, a study shows that 94 percent of customers have stayed in the program, with participants rising to 248 from 112 as of September 30, 2021.
Sereda says the program was started out of a desperate need to stop people dying from fentanyl overdose in the London area.
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Before joining the program, 59 percent of people reported taking an overdose in the past six months, but that number had dropped to 23 percent for those currently in it.
“If it were not for this program, I really do not think I would have been here now … and felt as healthy as I am,” said one client in the study.
Participants also reported an increase in their health, with 59 percent of the people in the program reporting improvement in their physical health since they started and 25 percent reporting that it remained the same. Sixteen percent of the participants did say that their health had deteriorated.
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The number of people who visited the emergency room also went from 77 percent when they first enrolled in the program to 45 percent during participation.
Another noticeable difference was a drop in people committing crimes to afford drugs, from 73 percent before the program to 37 percent during.
“We no longer have to go to the streets to make our habit, to make money to pay for our pills. Since I was on (the SOS program), I have not gone to jail in three and a half years. So, that’s a good thing. I no longer work (in sex work) at all, so. It saved my life, “said one client in the report.
The key issues that clients reported were waiting times to enter the program and the lack of doctors to administer it.
Looking at what’s next, the study makes several recommendations, including providing more encapsulation services and expanding access so that more people can participate.
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Reference-globalnews.ca