Latest news with #Ontario-wide
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Opioid use among kids in Grades 7-12 doubled in 2 years: OPH
The number of children in Grades 7 to 12 using opioids in Ottawa roughly doubled from 2021 to 2023, according to recent data from Ottawa Public Health (OPH) and the Centre for Mental Health and Addiction. Ten per cent of those students reported using the highly addictive drugs without a prescription in 2021, according to OPH's presentation last Monday to the city's board of health. In 2023, the most recent year data was available, that number jumped to 20 per cent. It mirrors an Ontario-wide trend, with the percentage for that group jumping from 13 to 22 per cent over the same period. "It's disappointing to hear, but it's not surprising," said Paige O'Leary, who would once have been included in that statistic. Now 24 and sober, O'Leary became addicted to opioids as a teenager living in Kanata. "Just knowing how bad it was when I was in high school, I just can't even imagine how bad it is today," she told CBC. Several local parents also said they're not surprised by the increase. Calla Barnett, who attended last week's meeting as a delegate, said she's "known for quite a while" that opioid use is rising. Her child, a Grade 7 student, has been offered drugs on the street, she said. "I just don't have words [for the fact] that they're exposed to those things so young," Barnett said. "I'm pretty angry." 'There's just no help' Paige O'Leary's story reached the headlines in 2017 after her father Sean wrote an open letter about the drug problem among young people in the community. After it went viral, he tried to advocate for solutions to the opioid crisis, while connecting with other struggling parents. Part of the problem, he said, is that families even now feel lost trying to navigate a system not designed to treat kids with addictions. "There's just no help," he said. "And there's still not." Calla Barnett said the news of rising opioid use among students in Grades 7 and 12 doesn't come as a big shock, noting that her own child in Grade 7 has been approached by people selling drugs. (CBC) When Sean O'Leary tried to get help for his daughter, he found that addictions treatment services weren't usually designed for children — and that children's services weren't usually designed to manage addiction. "First thing [parents] do is call CHEO," he said, referring to eastern Ontario's children's hospital. "Unless your kids tell them they're going to harm themselves or kill themselves, there's nothing CHEO can do. They just let them back out." To help his daughter break her addiction, Sean O'Leary said he, his wife and his mother-in-law spent three or four days with her at home, watching over her 24/7. There was nowhere in Ottawa to "get detox for a minor," he said. Paige O'Leary said she remembered long waiting lists to access psychologists and other types of support. "I'm so lucky to have had my own family to help navigate the system," she said. "Because I can't imagine going through that without them." Sean O'Leary said that even now, parents of children struggling with addiction feel lost trying to navigate the health-care system. (CBC) But parents don't have to navigate that system alone, said Trisha Islam, the director for infant, child and youth work at United Way East Ontario. Parents facing a "complex case" should seek professionals like school guidance counsellors who are connected to the larger network of support and health-care providers, she said. "Let them navigate the system for you, but come into the system so that we can support you," she said. There's also mental health and addictions counselling available for students in every public high school in Ottawa, Islam added, as part of an initiative dubbed Project Step. Prevention efforts needed For Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stéphanie Plante, who attended the board of health's meeting as a delegate, her priority is to ensure kids never turn to drugs in the first place. "When I go to the OPH website, I do not see anything about prevention," she said, noting she'd like to see information available for parents about how kids get drugs and what kinds they're accessing. Barnett and another mother, Anya Fraser, told CBC they were concerned about ensuring drugs from a safer supply site don't reach children. Several experts have told CBC, however, that the evidence doesn't support the idea that those drugs end up in the hands of young people. As for Paige O'Leary, she mostly bought drugs from her peers, adding that schools should pay more attention to figure out which kids are selling them. She also said she didn't know how dangerous those drugs were. Talking more to kids about drugs — and how alcohol can serve as a gateway — would help, she said. Today, O'Leary still sees a counsellor at Pathways, a treatment centre in Renfrew County. They're a "huge support," she said. "Even though I'm sober," she said, "I still do struggle sometimes." READ | Data presented to Ottawa's board of health
CBC
15-03-2025
- Health
- CBC
Hamilton, Grand Erie public health units recommend measles vaccine for some babies under 1 year old
Social Sharing In response to an Ontario-wide measles outbreak, with many cases occurring near Brantford, some public health units have expanded vaccinations to include infants as young as six months. Typically, the measles vaccine is given to children at one year old and then four years old. But with dozens of cases reported in the community, Grand Erie Public Health (GEPH) has made the first shot available to babies between six and 11 months, and the second to children before they turn four. Hamilton Public Health Services is also recommending the first vaccine dose be administered to infants under one year old if they're part of travel to other areas of Ontario or internationally. GEPH covers Brantford, and the counties of Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk. As of Thursday, GEPH had confirmed 110 cases this year, with the majority in children and the County of Brant, officials said at a news conference. Hamilton recently reported one measles case, but it's linked to international travel and not the outbreak in Ontario, said Dr. Brendan Lew, associate medical officer of health, in an email Friday. WATCH | Ontario measles cases more than double in 2 weeks: Ontario measles cases more than double in 2 weeks 22 hours ago Duration 2:01 Ontario is seeing a huge surge in measles cases, mostly among unvaccinated children. Health officials say cases have nearly doubled since its last report on Feb. 27. Note: Since this video was published, Public Health Ontario has revised the number of confirmed measles cases to 252. Southwestern Public Health has also reported over 100 cases in recent months and has expanded its vaccination program. It covers Oxford County, Elgin County and the City of St. Thomas, south of London. Measles 'completely preventable' Myriah Culp lives in the Niagara Region, where Niagara Health says nine cases have been identified. She said she's worried her three-week-old daughter Everly, who's too young to get vaccinated, will get sick with the measles. "She's too little, she has no protection and it's very contagious," Culp told CBC News. "I even worry about just taking her out." She's "very angry" about the outbreak because the measles is "completely preventable and eradicated." Dr. Azim Kasmani, Niagara Region's medical officer of health, said in an email to CBC Hamilton that "Niagara is currently not an area of concern for measles spread," adding all local infections "are linked, and are in people who have not received any doses of measles-containing vaccine." Niagara is following provincial guidance for vaccination schedules, Kasmani said. "Children should receive two doses of the measles vaccine, their first at 12 months and a second when they are between four to six years old." There's no cure for the measles, but the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine has been used for more than 50 years and is "proven to be one of the safest and most effective vaccines available," said a statement from Public Health Ontario. Children fully immunized with two doses of the vaccine are nearly 100 per cent protected, while a single dose provides roughly 95 per cent protection. In the last school year, only 70 per cent of seven-year-olds were fully vaccinated against measles, according to Public Health Ontario data. The agency says this represents a "large decline" from rates before the COVID-19 pandemic, as seen with many of Ontario's routine publicly funded immunization programs. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization says 95 per cent is needed to ensure Canada stays free of endemic measles. Measles tends to start with cold-like symptoms like fever, cough, runny nose, and red and watery eyes, with a rash that eventually appears on the face and body. It's a highly contagious illness, especially among people who aren't vaccinated, and can lead to serious health issues such as pneumonia, swelling and in rare cases death, said Public Health Ontario.
CBC
27-01-2025
- Health
- CBC
Windsor getting new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hub
Windsor will be getting a new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hub, Ontario health minister Sylvia Jones has announced. The project is co-led by Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, House of Sophrosyne and the Windsor-Essex Community Health Centre. It's one of 18 new hubs across Ontario the health ministry announced on Monday. The province previously announced nine others on Jan. 2. "Today's announcement ... is a great step forward in supporting the marginalized residents of Windsor-Essex," said Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare President and CEO Bill Marra in a news release. "I commend our minister and her colleagues for their continued commitment to filling the gaps in mental health and addiction care through the augmentation and creation of new services." The announcement follows a decision by the province in August of last year to close down consumption and treatment services, sometimes known as supervised consumption sites, operating within 200 metres of schools and licensed child-care centres. Windsor's SafePoint had previously closed in January of 2024. The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) had opened SafePoint at Goyeau and Wyandotte Street East in April 2023 after it got federal approval to operate as an urgent public health needs site. The health unit had decided to temporarily fund it until it could get provincial approval. But its application became stalled when the government undertook an Ontario-wide review of all sites following a shooting near a CTS site in Toronto in August 2023. The decision to ban sites within 200 metres of schools and childcare centres prevented SafePoint from ever reopening at its prior location and the health unit ended its tenancy of the building late last year. The Canadian Mental Health Association Lambton Kent Sarnia will also receive a HART Hub, according to the province.
