A new CMAJ report is highlighting the inadequate efforts to address opioid use among adolescents in Canada, stating that existing services need to be tailored to better meet the needs of young people.
A second CMAJ report co-authored by Dr. Tara Gomes gives insight into recent opioid-prescribing trends, showing that dispensing of opioids has decreased. Dr. Gomes shared with The Globe and Mail that while this is a positive trend, the recent also showed the concerning element of some practitioners outright refusing to prescribe opioids all together.
“Opioids have a place in clinical practice, but it’s really about making sure that when they are accessed, it’s required that people have tried other alternatives, and that they’re prescribed as low dose and short a time period as possible,” Dr. Gomes said.
Dr. Sean Rourke spoke with The Lethbridge Herald about the latest Healthbox launch in the Piikani Nation in Alberta. The free vending machines contain HIV self-tests, drug testing strips, pregnancy tests and socks and mittens.
“This offers an opportunity for people to come and have a low barrier way of getting things they need to take care of themselves, when it’s best for them and also to get it without judgement and stigma,” said Dr. Rourke.
This is Alberta’s second Healthbox, with the other one located in Siksika.
In contrast to the haste and investment the federal government has put behind mining projects, universal pharmacare has been approached cautiously and progressed slowly. MAP scientist and Canada Research Chair in Health Justice Dr. Nav Persaud spoke with the Toronto Star about the benefits universal pharmacare stands to provide, including economical development.
Dr. Katerina Maximova’s research focuses on solutions to improve the early life experiences, development and well-being of children and youth experiencing poverty.
Canada was previously the only G7 country with no national school food program. First announced in Budget 2024 with an investment of $1 billion over five years (2025-29), the National School Food Program will now receive permanent funding of $216.6 million per year starting in 2029/30. The Government of Canada has signed bilateral agreements with all provinces and territories to continue implementation and expansion of the program.
MAP’s contribution: In Fall 2022, MAP Scientist Dr. Katerina Maximova was part of the national opening roundtable to shape the new pan-Canadian School Food Policy. Dr. Maximova’s role was to provide a research perspective and help ensure that the policy is grounded in the best available evidence.
“This funding is already improving the lives of many thousands of children in Canada,” said Dr. Maximova. “To make it permanent was always the goal. It’s a very exciting day.”
In January 2025, Dr. Maximova also advised the City of Toronto on implementation of the federal funding, through their Universal Student Food Program Steering Committee. The City subsequently committed to providing a morning meal in all Toronto school communities by the 2026/2027 school year and to introduce a lunch program by 2030.
MAP’s Navigator program pairs hospital patients who are homeless with an outreach counsellor – a ‘Navigator’ – who gets to know the patient and helps them plan for discharge.
Where will the patient live after they leave the hospital? How will they manage medications, and get to follow-up appointments?
These questions can be complex, but the Navigator walks alongside the patient to sort through the answers – both while they’re in hospital and in the months following. The goals are to better support unhoused patients as they recover from hospitalization, connect them with healthcare and social services in the community, and ultimately, to help people exit homelessness for good.
MAP designed and launched the Navigator Program as a St. Michael’s Hospital pilot in 2019. As the program grew, the positive impact on St. Michael’s patients – and their care teams – was clear. That’s why MAP and Staples Canada, through our Even the Odds partnership, expanded Navigator to St. Paul’s Hospital (Vancouver) in 2023 followed by Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) in 2025.
Across all sites, the Navigator program has now served more than 1,000 patients.
To mark World Homeless Day on Oct. 10, we talked with Dr. Anita Palepu at St. Paul’s about the program’s impact so far.
Dr. Anita Palepu, General Internist and Head of Department of Medicine, St. Paul’s Hospital, Providence Health Care
“When MAP and Staples approached us to see if Navigator might be feasible at St. Paul’s, it was clear that the program was a perfect fit. We serve many people who are vulnerably housed or homeless, many of whom have complex medical issues. We were experiencing all the same challenges that St. Michael’s had experienced.
Hospitals are always working at full capacity. When people don’t need acute hospital care anymore, we must discharge them to make the bed available for people who are sicker. But for our unhoused patients, that often meant we had to send people straight from the hospital to a shelter, or even to the street because the shelters were full. It was a huge gap in care, and often people ended up right back in hospital. It’s a really difficult cycle to break.
The support from Even the Odds meant we could hire Alex, our new ‘Navigator’, in this very specific role. MAP supported us in designing and adapting the program for our hospital. We went for site visits and got to know how the program worked in Toronto. We are still in close contact, sharing our learnings back and forth. Our whole team – our program directors, nurses, social workers, and all our allied team – have all been extremely enthusiastic, because we all saw the need, and now we are seeing the successes as well.
Just like at St. Michael’s, our unhoused patients are both medically and socially complex. Many are living with a really challenging combination of poverty, isolation, serious mental health disorders and substance use. Without shelter and support, people age rapidly, and die early.
I wish we could solve the more structural issues in our society that would prevent this from happening to people. But thanks to Staples, MAP and the Navigator program, we can now care for them the best we can, with all the levers we have access to.
We are incredibly grateful for Staples’ generosity and ongoing support. It means a lot that they believed in the program and wanted to see it expand. It’s all been a really wonderful experience for St. Paul’s.”
