Ottawa Public Health launches expanded overdose web site
Increasing communication and collaboration to reduce unintended overdoses in Ottawa
At our Board of Health meeting on Monday night we received a major update about Ottawa Public Health’s overdose prevention work in collaboration with community partners.
It included the launch of an expanded StopOverdoseOttawa.ca web site (en français: ArretOverdoseOttawa.ca). It’s a comprehensive page with information and resources on overdose prevention, substance abuse, and mental health.
The site includes a dashboard with weekly overdose data from local emergency departments. OPH and health care partners are using the data as an early signal of changes to the situation in Ottawa, and to focus prevention efforts.
Dashboard reporting was central to awareness and communication during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and hopefully this data can bring similar attention to the scale of the overdose crisis in Ottawa.
For the week starting October 30, there were 67 suspected overdose visits to emergency rooms in Ottawa, and 2 suspected deaths.
Notes from this week’s report:
The number of suspected drug overdose ED visits in recent weeks is lower than those seen in late May through July of 2023.Â
The number of suspected overdose related deaths in recent weeks is lower than was seen earlier in 2023.
July of 2023 saw the highest number of confirmed opioid overdose related ED visits within the past 3 years. Â
The number of deaths in the first quarter of 2023 is among the highest since the start of surveillance in 2017.Â
All areas of Ottawa are affected by opioid-related harms, but the largest numbers and rates tend to be in the downtown areas of Ottawa. Â
You can see the information and dashboards at StopOverdoseOttawa.ca, or watch the OPH presentation on Ottawa’s Overdose Response Strategy on YouTube.