Task force approves guidelines to curb painkiller abuse, death

A group of high profile medical and community stakeholders hasapproved a plan to combata growingproblem: too many people are dying from prescription painkiller abuse in Hamilton.

A group of 50 stakeholders,including medical professionals, police, educators and community groups, gathered in Hamilton Friday to approve a template for action to fight the citys growing prescription painkiller problem.

The onus now moves to the various group members to take the actionsback into their own silos and implement them. While the group doesnot have thepower to enact immediateand sweeping changes, its membersdo carry considerable influence within their own spheres. That should be enough to start enacting change, says Dr. Norm Buckley, director of Hamilton Health Sciences pain clinics.

Itll be an interesting thing to see what the turnaround time is, he said. This is a pretty high profile thing.

Getting all of those people in one room and set on the idea of creating change is a major accomplishment, says Dr. Buckley. This is a really broad group of people but they all agree that this is a complex social problem, he said.

And that problem is growing. According to statistics obtained by CBC Hamilton from the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Information System, admission rates for local opioid withdrawal programs are now the second highest in the province, behind northern Ontario.

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• READ MORE: Prescription painkiller abuse exploding in Hamilton

In 2002, one in 10 people who entered a withdrawal management program at St. Josephs Healthcare was an opioid patient. In 2012, the rate was one in four. The number of female opioid withdrawal patients at St. Joseph's is more than double the provincial average.

As well, opiate deaths make up over half of all acute drug-related deaths in the city, according to the coroners office. Years ago, heroin was the most common opioid doctors saw. Now, its prescription pills.

The groups plan contains dozens of ways to help curb the problem. Some highlights include:

• Creating a widely available pharmacy information system
• Reporting suspected prescription abusers to Crime Stoppers
• Prescribing the drug Naloxone, which can be used to save people from overdosing in an emergency
• Encouraging returns of unused medication
• Notifying physicians when drugs theyve prescribed become part of a legal case

Its an important list that could help save lives, said Sgt. Jo-Ann Savoie, a Hamilton police representative at Fridays meeting. Theres a role for us here, she said. Its a good thing for us to be doing.

But as police are the enforcement arm of the problem, the real key lies in the community response to find the roots of the problem and snuff it out, she says. Because in the end, its not for us to tell the community how to solve their problems, she said. Its bigger than that. Its a community thing.

• READ MORE: Prescription painkillers fuelling crime in Hamilton
• LISTEN: Curbing Hamilton's opioid problem

Communication between agencies was the biggest common issue raised by all agencies at the meeting, Buckley says. Under the guise of privacy concerns to protect patients and the law enforcement process, many organizations are reluctant to release any information about a person involved in a drug case or abuse situation.

Under current guidelines, if someone is convicted of trafficking prescription medication and Buckleys name is on the bottles, he wouldnt be called unless he was part of the investigation.

And right now, if a patient of mine dies, I almost never hear from the coroner, Buckley said. Thats part of what hes hoping to change.