At Issue: Canadian Mental Health Association Simcoe Branch on Barrie's Opioid Crisis

A key part of Canada’s opioid crisis is mental health.  Substance abuse disorder affects about 21 per cent of Canadians -- and while opioids are a substance like 

When that substance is alcohol or opioids, the level of danger rises exponentially:  a tainted drug supply has led to over 17,000 deaths in Canada since 2017. The Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research reports that in 2018, there were 249 alcohol-related hospitalizations in Canada every day per 100,000 people. 

However opioid use is especially complicated by lingering stigma and prejudice -- and that’s dangerous, says health professionals from the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Simcoe branch. 

“We have both stigma and prejudice, and self-stigma,” said Kim Bray, Team Lead for the CMHA’s addictions services program. “Many people don’t feel like they are worthy of change, worthy of being well or deserving of that.” 

Bray and her team members say this means people might be hesitant to seek help.

“We’re constantly challenging their own sense of stigma, while working externally with the community to bring a better understanding,” she said.  

It’s a stigma that makes it hard for people to seek help, or reintegrate into a community which might not accept them. That’s a community, says Bray, which is largely misinformed about how and why people use drugs. 

“Many people think illegal drug use is immediately an addiction -- and that’s not the case,” said Bray. “Many people use it for enjoyment, and can use it without it being problematic.” 

And excessive use can’t be pinned on moral failings, or some sort of weakness, said Bray. 

Addiction, she said, is a “symptom, but it's so intertwined with the other factors of life.” That misunderstanding impacts so much of how communities interact with harm reduction strategies for people who use opioids; like a supervised consumption site. 

This conversation with the CMHA is part of BCM’s ongoing coverage of the Opioid crisis in Barrie. Through conversation with those in all areas of the fight against Opioid addiction and the toxic drug supply, we hope to add nuance and depth to the conversations happening in our city. 

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