Alberta's Overdose Crisis

Peace Out Poverty

Opioid overdoses have been a major public health concern for the last several years, with the number of drug poisonings and deaths steadily rising since the pandemic began. This episode, we connected with Marliss Taylor of Boyle Street Community Services and Laurence Braun-Woodbury at Bissell Centre to discuss how the overdose crisis is impacting people in the Alberta Capital Region and what we can do to turn the tide.

Connect: Bissell Centre

Connect: Boyle Street Community Services

Connect: Addiction Recovery and Community Health (ARCH)

Connect: Alberta’s Virtual Opioid Dependency Program

Connect: EACH + EVERY: Businesses for Harm Reduction

Connect: George Spady Society

Connect: Moms Stop the Harm

Connect: Opioid Dependency Program, Alberta Health Services

Connect: Poundmaker’s Lodge Treatment Centres

Read: Affordability of Housing Kneebone Study

Read: Alberta Opioid Response Surveillance Report

Read: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Maté

The GenNEXT podcast team is Tokunbo Adegbuyi, Alex Bedard, Renée Chan, Jenna Halabi, Andrew Mason, David Odumade, Stephen Ryan, and Feven Worede. GenNEXT is a volunteer committee of United Way of the Alberta Capital Region. If you’d like to learn more or find out how you can be a part of the plan to reduce poverty, visit MyUnitedWay.ca.

Citations

• Minister’s Opioid Emergency Response Commission
• Opioid and Stimulant Related Harms in Canada, Government of Canada Study
• Opioid crisis remains a large issue in southern Alberta Indigenous Communities, CTV News
• Opioid Crisis: No Easy Fix to Its Social and Economic Determinants, National Library of Medicine
• The Opioid Crisis in Canada, The Library Parliament
• Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics: 2020, Government of Canada Study