Windsor-Essex overdose spike spurs call for naloxone kits in public spaces

When public health restrictions caused by the spread of COVID-19 are lifted across Windsor-Essex, first responders see an increase in calls to treat people suffering from an opioid overdose, according to Essex-Windsor EMS.

Last week emergency departments in the region treated eight suspected overdoses, prompting an alert from a local group of health care organizations. 

"It's concerning across the region," said EMS chief Bruce Krauter, who co-chairs the Windsor-Essex Community Opioid and Substance Strategy group. 

"As we start to open up the community from the pandemic ... we actually start to see that the overdoses are increasing. Why that is, we don't know," said Krauter. 

He said that the trend has continued throughout the pandemic, with calls returning to expected volumes shortly after spikes are noted. 

"It's more of an awareness that when we get called for either a problem unknown or somebody that may be found unconscious somewhere, it's a high probability that it is an opioid overdose."

Krauter encourages the public to pick up a naloxone kit which are available free at pharmacies and can help reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. 

Get a naloxone kit

The overdose alert comes as a harm reduction worker in Windsor calls for greater access to naloxone kits in places like bars, schools and motels. 

Lisa Dobeson-Whitehead echoed Krauter's calls for people to pick-up kits while advocating for them to be placed at locations where overdoses occurring.

"The motel rooms are notorious," said Dobeson-Whitehead, a peer support harm reduction worker at Pozitive Pathways in Windsor. 

"They put a Bible in the drawer. I think they need to put a naloxone in each drawer, unfortunately."

She's also urging people to educate themselves on the Good Samaritan Act, which came into effect in 2017.

The act provides a degree of amnesty for people who overdose, or who contact 911 to report an overdose.

It protects those who report an overdose — and everyone else at the scene when police and paramedics arrive — from charges stemming from drug possession and breach of conditions, like parole or probation, related to possession.

It doesn't shield anyone from charges related to outstanding warrants, drug production or trafficking.

But Dobeson-Whitehead said her experience as a harm reduction worker leads her to believe that people are still being left when they begin to overdose. 

"They're not even attempting to use naloxone and bring that person back and dial 911. They're leaving the person, unfortunately, it sounds horrific, but this is actually happening," she said, adding she wasn't sure why people were making that decision. 

Both Krauter and Bobeson-Whitead fully support a new move from the Ontario government that could see naloxone kits become mandatory in places like bars and construction sites. 

"Construction sites are hard to get to, hard to access from an EMS or first responder perspective," said Krauter.

He said that the kits should be placed where defibrillators are found to help people who may be experiencing an overdose.