The number of opioid-related deaths in Brantford-Brant tripled from 2018 to 2023, with much of the increase driven by the pandemic, says a drugs strategy coordinator at the Brant County Health Unit.
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The number of local opioid-related fatalities in Brant rose from 22 in 2018 to 60 in 2023.
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“Overdose fatalities rose dramatically throughout Canada (and North America) during the pandemic, so this trend is not unique to Brantford-Brant,” said Alyssa Stryker.
Stryker said the deaths were driven by several factors, including the pandemic’s mental health harms, increased isolation, and fear of infection preventing people from engaging with service providers.
“In addition, border restrictions during the pandemic destabilized the drug supply, which increased the overdose risk.”
What’s more difficult to determine, said Stryker, is why the rate of opioid-related deaths in Brant has been consistently greater, sometimes substantially greater, than the Ontario average, over the past six years.
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A report released by the health unit last August shows the number of opioid-related deaths increased from 22 in 2018 to 42 in 2019, then fell to 39 in 2020. In 2021 there were 54 deaths, 47 in 2022 and 66 in 2023.
In 2022, the rate was 41.1 deaths per 100,000 people in Brant compared to 22.4 deaths per 100,000 for Ontario. In 2023, there were 3,625 deaths in Ontario. The rate of death per 100,000 people in Brant was 37.61 compared to 23.59 for the province.
“The factors that drive opioid-related deaths are complex and we don’t have enough data to know exactly what is causing elevated rates in our community,” Stryker said. “We base our response to these numbers on evidence about risk factors for opioid-related deaths from other jurisdictions – things such as addressing social determinants of health, reducing stigma, access to harm reduction services, housing, and prompt access to withdrawal management and treatment, when needed.”
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Other key findings in the health unit report for 2018 to 2022 include:
- Males and individuals aged 25 to 44 represent most opioid-related fatalities.
- Most deaths occurred among those living in a private dwelling.
- More than a third of deaths happened when the person was alone, and nobody was there to intervene.
- Fentanyl was the most prevalent opioid that directly contributed to opioid-related deaths – 78.3 per cent of deaths in 2022.
- Cocaine and methamphetamines were the non-opioids most involved in opioid-related deaths.
- Deaths resulting from consuming drugs through inhalation increased, whereas the fatal cases where drugs were consumed by injection decreased over time.
- No more than a quarter of all opioid-related deaths involved the use of naloxone, a widely-available medication that can temporarily reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
Stryker said although there is some indication the surge of deaths that begins in 2020 is leveling off in both Ontario and Brantford-Brant, there’s no one simple solution to reversing the upward trend of opioid-related fatalities.
“It’s going to take a combination of interventions across silos, such as improved access to housing, treatment and harm reduction services. It’s going to take collaboration from all levels of government, along with many community agencies, to really get to the root of this.”
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