Author: Samira Prasad

Karen McDonald gave CTV a look into MAP’s Drug Checking Service. On the front lines of Toronto’s opioid epidemic, the team check and report on the city’s drug supply in an effort to combat the overdose crisis.

In this podcast from CMAJ, Dr. Darrell Tan describes the regimen of the newly approved long-acting injectable for pre-exposure prophylaxis and as a treatment for HIV.

MAP scientist Dr. Archna Gupta found that patients in Ontario were typically better off being in close proximity to their family doctors. The further away they lived, the less likely they were to be screened for cancer and the more likely they were to visit the emergency department for non-urgent health concerns. Dr. Gupta recently spoke with The Globe and Mail about these findings.

Dr. Dan Werb‘s collabortive work with Dr. Dan Beriault and Dr. Drew Hall on a new drug checking device, DoseCheck, was recently featured in U of T news. The device will be low cost to produce and can give results in just 45 seconds. It won’t have the range of a mass spectrometer, which is the gold standard, but it will detect the most common substances found. It will help fill in the gaps in current harm reduction methods by making testing more accessible.

Hayley Thompson of MAP’s Drug Checking Service recently spoke with CTV News about the increase of xylazine and other tranquilizers showing up in Toronto street drugs. While naloxone can reverse the effects of fentanyl on a person experiencing an overdose, it cannot negate the dangerous effect of the tranquilizers, which are being added to the drugs.

Dr. Tara Gomes recently spoke with TVO about her recent report that identified that the rate of opioid overdose deaths in Ontario’s shelter system more than tripled during the pandemic. The study showed that 90 percent of those who died had sought help for a mental health related condition. “This is a population with a high complexity of needs,” says Dr. Gomes, “and we’re clearly not finding the best ways to support them.”

MAP recently launched Our Healthbox, a harm reduction vending machine, at Brantford’s SOAR Community Services office. Dr. Sean B. Rourke, project lead, shared with The Brantford Expositor that “everyone in Canada deserves to have what they need, when they need it, to take care of their health, but we know this is not the case, so we are doing everything we can to bridge that gap in ways that work for each person in their community.”

The Ontario government is downgrading COVID-19 from a novel coronavirus to a “disease of public health significance,” limiting the kind of data that needs to be reported to, and by, medical officers of health. Dr. Andrew Pinto is quoted in this coverage by Politics Today. “It’s that balance of, while we’re reducing data in one area, do we have it in another source? And I would say that wastewater surveillance was both fairly cheap for the amount of information we got and also provided us a system that could be quickly scaled up in a new pandemic,” he said.

Dr. Tara Gomes recently spoke with The Canadian Press about her new study that found that the most rapid spike in overdose deaths during the pandemic was within shelters. The report takes a closer look at the demographics of this group. “There’s a real concern that some of the policies that have existed within shelters, and the fear that people have of being kicked out of a shelter if their substance use is noted, is leading to people using drugs alone. And that’s increasing the risk of death,” says Dr. Gomes.

From Providence Health Care’s The Daily Scan

For many patients, being discharged from the hospital is a welcome event that means a return to the comfort and stability of home. But what happens when a patient doesn’t have a home to go to?

“Anyone who’s worked with unhoused populations knows the challenges that come with follow-up care post discharge,” says St. Paul’s Hospital Medicine Outreach Social Worker Alexandra Mackinnon. “Navigating the health care system becomes exponentially more challenging when you’re unhoused, have few supports, and have no way of being contacted.”

A new pilot program at St. Paul’s aims to improve the hospital experience and post-discharge health and social outcomes for people experiencing homelessness. Funded by Staples, the Navigator Program launched in September 2023 and is modelled after a similar program at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.

Meeting people where they’re at

As the program social worker, Mackinnon splits her time between the hospital and the community. She works closely with patients before and after discharge, then provides a warm hand-off to community case managers and other service providers.

“I meet people where they’re at in hospital, assess their needs and follow them for 90 days after discharge,” she explains. “This could involve attending follow-up appointments, connecting them to primary care, advocating for more supportive housing – and anything in between.”

The program recognizes that, compared to the general population, patients experiencing homelessness often have sub-optimal hospital experiences, are more likely to self-discharge, have higher readmission rates, and face unique struggles in following discharge plans.

“Having an outreach worker embedded in the hospital is beneficial because we have access to medical records and can bridge the gap in collaboration with community partners to get people the care that they need,” Mackinnon says.

She’s hopeful the pilot program expands and become a permanent fixture.