Southern Alberta Moms Stop The Harm Memorial Photo at Piikani Nation Remembers Lives Lost to Overdose Crisis

Piikani First Nation, July 12, 2020

In a powerful statement to remember loved ones lost from substance use-related causes, Moms Stop The Harm (MSTH) southern Alberta members in partnership with Piikani Nation gathered on Piikani traditional land for the sixth in a series of iconic memorial photos.  The intent is to continue to draw attention to the ongoing loss to opioid poisonings and other substance use-related causes so lives can be saved. During the COVID-19 pandemic, overdose rates have risen significantly across the country and families demand that this ongoing health emergency is given the same attention as coronavirus.

“The purpose of these photos is to remember our lost children and acknowledge that their lives matter,” says Petra Schultz, MSTH Co-Founder. “It’s also an important opportunity to raise awareness of changes that need to be made in the community so other families don’t suffer the same loss.”

This memorial photo marked a partnership between bereaved MSTH families from communities across Alberta and the Piikani Nation.  It was the first MSTH memorial photo to take place on a First Nations reserve. Indigenous people are disproportionately affected by the overdose crisis.  In Alberta, First Nations people are dying from opioid poisoning at a rate three to four times higher than non-First Nations people[i]. Piikani Nation is just one of many Indigenous communities hit hard by the dual health crises converging, with four opioid-related deaths occurring in just the last couple of weeks.

“One of the solutions we need to prevent opioid poisoning deaths is getting wider access to nasal spray naloxone.  While it is funded through pharmacy, there are still significant barriers for many Indigenous people,” says Brian Jackson, Band Councillor, Piikani Nation.  “It needs to become accessible from local Public Health Units as the more widely it’s available, the more people it can help.”

The event brought together Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities to tackle a crisis that affects all Canadians. It also educated members of Piikani Nation about the supports available to them and engaged the community in an important dialogue about the overdose crisis.

MSTH members from around southern Alberta who attended remembered their loved ones together with members of Piikani Nation who suffered the same losses. The pain of losing a child or a loved one is the same for these families and overdose deaths are preventable.

This is how Kym Porter, one of the MSTH members who came from from Medicine Hat, describes the event:

On Sunday, July 12, 2020 under an expansive sky promising to cooperate, a number of Southern Alberta family members gathered on the sacred land of the Piikani First Nation for the sixth in a series of iconic MSTH photo shoots.

The beauty of the Rocky Mountains in the background enveloped by the continuous fields of wildflowers was in sharp contrast to the torment and trauma experienced by the loved ones gathered to honour and pay tribute to the too many lives lost needlessly to the overdose crisis. Elder Jordan led us in prayer spoken profoundly in the Blackfoot language.

We then gathered in a field, cradling in our arms the pictures of our loved ones as the wind sent us each secret messages. As I stood in awe, with deep respect for the collective grief and the gifts of this natural location, I felt honoured to be invited here all the while sensing the immense, palpable connection. We gathered to speak of and to our loved ones. We gathered to help us heal. We gathered in strength and solidarity to support the passionate call for decriminalization, safe supports and a non judgemental approach for those who are struggling. We gathered in love.

About the Moms Stop The Harm Memorial Photo Series

The images are part of a series from across the country, with more to come. In February, Edmonton and northern Alberta families gathered at the bank of the North Saskatchewan River. In January members in Powell River BC stood at a local beach for their photo, in late November families from Vancouver and the Lower Mainland gathered for the second installment on Jericho Beach. The first photo was taken on Knox Mountain in Kelowna in September 2019 and a future photo is planned in Regina in August, using the crosses from this event.

About Moms Stop The Harm

Moms Stop the Harm (MSTH) is a network of Canadian families impacted by substance use-related harms and deaths. They advocate to change failed drug policies and provide peer support to grieving families and those with loved ones who use or have used substances.

Mome stop the Harm calls for an end to the criminalization of people who use drugs and safe pharmaceutical alternatives to toxic street drugs, ready access to harm reduction services and treatment on demand.

This photo was a team effort and we are thankful to:

• All families who attended, those who drove from other communities and those who are part of Piikani Nation. We are sorry for and most of us share your grief.

• The Elders who blessed the gathering and the land

• Our MSTH organizers for this event (Lori Vrebosh and Lori Hatfield. ) and our media spokespeople.

• Mountain Drift Photography for the donation of photo services

• The makers of the overdose reversal drug Narcan Nasal Spray for covering the costs incurred by Piikani Nation during the event.

MSTH families strongly object to proposed involuntary care of youths in BC

An open letter to Judy Darcy, British Columbia Minister for Mental Health and Addictions regarding Bill-22-2020 The Mental Health Amendement Act.

Moms Stop the Harm (MSTH), an organization of over 1,300 families in Canada who have all had close experiences with the crisis of overdose and drug-related death, does not support Bill 22, the proposed amendment to the BC Mental Health Act..

The amendment, Bill 22, the involuntary care of youth who present at a medical facility in an overdose state, is counterproductive.  This amendment on involuntary care was drafted with little or no collaboration from stakeholders - families and youth - and will likely have serious negative, unintended consequences for the young people it aims to help.

In the experience of our families, involuntary care does not lead to successful recovery. In fact, we see that it is likely to break a youth’s trust in both the health system and the family - a harmful and devastating outcome that has resulted in the death of a child for a number of families in our community.

Involuntary care will have a destabilizing effect on youth, which may increase their risk of overdose upon release. For many youth who need our help the most, this amendment may have the opposite of its intended outcome. For instance, many marginalized youth who have experienced the health and social systems, including social services, have already lost faith in the state, given that such involvement has often resulted in a negative experience.  Youth may perceive involuntary care as ‘incarceration’ which will exacerbate their lack of faith, thus leading to poor long-term outcomes. 

A further unintended consequence of this amendment is that youth witnessing a friend’s overdose may avoid calling 911 if they know that the possibility exists that they or a friend might be held for up to seven days against their will.  

There are too few health professionals in the province trained and skilled in addiction medicine, especially for youth.  Given that most youth in B.C. have little to no immediate care after overdose, particularly those who live in rural and remote communities, how will they benefit from involuntary care when the infrastructure is simply absent?  Removing them from their home communities, their families, is not the answer.

A further concern is the limited research done in this area; the scant research available does not support the Bill 22 model.

Where services for youth are urgently needed, but absent, is in harm reduction. This was identified by the Advocate for Children and Youth in a report released in November 2018:

The Representative firmly believes that B.C. should be building a comprehensive array of prevention, early intervention, care, treatment and post-treatment services for youth and that harm reduction must be a necessary part of this spectrum of services, especially for youth with significant and severe substance use issues (Advocate for Children and Youth, 2019, p. 1).

Of concern is that Bill 22 has little mention of the impact these changes will have on the family paradigm, nor does it outline the inclusion of families in the care of their loved ones. Families have an important role in supporting children and youth who experience challenges with substance use; families must be supported and involved in the care of their children whenever appropriate.

A further concern is the limited research done in this area, and the research that is available does not support this model.

Rather than implement involuntary approaches to substance use, the Province must instead focus on creating a provincial evidence-based, youth-focused system of care where one presently does not exist, as outlined in the above mentioned report by the Representative for Children and Youth

As the families of Moms Stop the Harm, we strongly object to Bill 22 in its current form, and urge the government to engage in meaningful dialogue with all stakeholders to develop services that actually will help, rather than harm our children.

Leslie McBain, Co-founder

For the British Columbia Members of Moms Stop the Harm, The Board of Directors of MSTH

Press Release: Moms Stop the Harm wants urgent action to end overdose crisis

VICTORIA, BC - Moms Stop the Harm (MSTH) spokesperson and co-founder Leslie McBain said, “We want to know how many more of our loved ones have to die before governments take the opioid crisis seriously,” in response to figures released today by the Public Health Agency of Canada on the number of opioid-related deaths in 2019.

The agency reported 3,823 deaths in 2019, bringing the total number of fatalities to 15,393 in the last four years alone.

McBain said that this year’s death toll is likely to be worse due to social isolation, an increasingly toxic drug supply and reduced harm reduction, treatment and recovery services. In some provinces and territories, the number of overdose deaths will likely be more than the number of people to die from COVID-19.

“That’s right, we have more than one national public health emergency on our hands and we think it’s time for the federal government to acknowledge this by declaring it as one so that it is taken seriously and funded appropriately,” said McBain.

“We call for urgent action to end the criminalization of people who use drugs because it causes them to use and die alone,” said McBain. “We also call for community-driven, lower barrier models for safer supply, which allow people to replace toxic street drugs with safer pharmaceutical alternatives.”

McBain noted that safer supply could be implemented right now in all provinces, based on new federal “pandemic prescribing” guidelines, but most provincial governments lack the political will to do so. “They choose to ignore the fact that dead people don’t recover,” she said.

 “We need urgent action so that our children, family and friends don’t die before they are able to get help,” said McBain. “Our loved ones don't have to die. Most opioid related deaths are preventable. We can fix this, but governments need to do more. A lot more.”

 “At the moment, there is no comprehensive pan-Canadian plan to address the opioid crisis. This is a shameful and heartbreaking state of affairs. As a society, we need to do better,” said McBain.

MSTH is a network of Canadian families impacted by substance use related harms and deaths. We advocate to change failed drug policies and provide peer support to grieving families and those with loved ones who use or have used substances.

For more information, contact Info@momsstoptheharm.com

Leslie McBain, Pender Island, BC - Deborah Hale Bailey, Vancouver, BC - Helen Jennens, Kelowna, BC - Petra Schulz, Edmonton, AB - Angela Welz, Edmonton, AB - Marie Agioritis, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Sheila Jennings, Toronto, ON - Christine Wingate, Ottawa, ON - Isabelle Fortier, Montreal, QC

Overdoses spiking in Calgary while mobile supervised consumption site collects dust

Guest blog by Marilou Gagnon RN,PhD (Victoria, BC) published with consent. A shorter version of this text was shared in a twitter thread,

The first case of COVID-19 was confirmed nearly 4 months ago and since then, all eyes have been turned to this unfolding public health emergency. However, let us not forget that Canada was already in the midst of an unprecedented public health emergency before COVID-19 – one that has taken the lives of more than 15,000 Canadians in less than 4 years and stalled our national life expectancy. The overdose crisis is not going away because of COVID-19. 

In fact, it is getting worse. 

Many cities across the country have been reporting spikes in overdoses and overdose deaths amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This is true for Vancouver and Toronto. It is also true for other cities including Victoria, Guelph, Windsor, Red Deer and Calgary.

Three factors have been contributing to this rise in overdoses and overdose deaths: reduction and closure of essential supervised consumption services, self-isolating requirements forcing people to use alone, and disruption of supply chains combined with the lack of access to a safe drug supply. Two of the most important measures governments can take now to address this dual public health emergency is to implement safe supply programs and scale up access to harm reduction services including supervised consumption services.             

This brings me to the situation in Calgary. 

IIn 2019, Calgary recorded the highest number of overdose deaths in the province. Despite this, there is currently only one supervised consumption site in operation in the city. Due to COVID-19, this site has been operating at reduced capacity, which has resulted in a drop in visits from 6,600 a month between December and February to 5,850 in March and 4,440 in April. At the same time, the site has been recording an increase in overdoses. Between December to February, staff responded to an average of 57 overdoses per month. In March, they responded to 83 overdoses and 87 overdoses in April. 

A similar spike in overdoses has been reported at the city’s largest homeless shelter, the Drop-In Centre. On a regular night, before COVID-19, the Drop-In would see as many as 650 people per night. At reduced capacity, it now welcomes about 300 people per night. Despite this, staff were called to respond to 47 overdoses in the month of March alone, a 327% increase from the month of February. This has contributed to high levels of moral distress and trauma among the staff who are not only managing multiple overdoses in a shelter setting but also doing so without the supports of an in-house supervised consumption service (and team).  

Rapid implementation of a mobile site could address gaps in supervised consumption services in the city and, in turn, reduce the risk of overdoses, and overdose deaths.  

There is a mobile site available in Calgary – but Alberta has taken it off the table. 

Leslie Hill, HIV Community Link executive director, inside the new mobile safe drug consumption site, in Calgary on Thursday. CHRISTINA RYAN / STAR CALGARY https://www.thestar.com/calgary/2019/05/02/new-mobile-supervised-drug-consumption-site-announced-for-forest-lawn.html

Unfortunately, in June 2019, the provincial government placed a moratorium on any new funding for supervised consumption services in Alberta. Prior to this announcement, a mobile supervised consumption site and pictures of the brand new and fully equipped van circulated in the media. It appeared to be ready to hit the road and save lives but it remains unused to this day – despite the challenges brought on by COVID-19 and spiking overdoses. This begs the question, why is a perfectly functional mobile site not being used and why is not being deployed to support frontline workers in the middle of a dual public health emergency? What could possibly be a valid reason to withhold this essential, life-saving, service right now? Knowing that frontline services are working at reduced capacity, why not implement a rapid solution to address gaps in services and reduce the strain on a health care system that is already overextended? 

Supervised consumption sites are preventative rather than reactive. They prevent overdoses and prevent overdose-related deaths or complications. They are also equipped to safely manage overdoses and other medical emergencies during the COVID-19 pandemic that do not require transfers to hospital. For these reasons, they reduce health care utilization and costs. They can also take pressure off overworked staff by preventing overdoses and helping more effectively manage them when they do occur. In turn, this reduces the risk of COVID-19 spreading to staff and clients – and to the broader community. 

In the context of a dual public health emergency, governments should be doing everything in their power to prevent overdoses, and reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19. This means deploying all the resources at their disposal – including a mobile supervised consumption site.  

Dr. Marilou Gagnon, RN, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Nursing at the University Victoria and a Scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research. She is also the President of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association.    

Nine Reasons to Support #SafeSupply

#SafeSupply Saves Lives - By Corey Ranger, RN, BN (Victoria BC). Shared on Twitter May 24, 2020.