‘Losing Even One Person is too much: Brantford-Brant Community Drugs Strategy

While the Brantford-Brant Rate of Overdose Deaths Remained Above the Provincial Average Last Year, It has been gradually decline since peaking in 2021.

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BETWEEN 2021 and 2024, Brantford-Brant’s Suspected Drug-Related Death Rate Fell by About 20 Per Cent, Slightly Fast Than the Provincial Rate.

Last Year, 23 people in Brantford Died of Suspected Opioid-Related Overdoses.

“Losing Even one person is too much,” Says the Brantford-Brant Community Drugs Strategy’s 2025 Action Plan. “It is encouraging, However, to see this is less Than Half of the Number of People (50) in the Community Lost to Suspected Opioid-Related Deaths in 2022.”

The Proportion of Deaths Involving Those Who Were Homeless has also decreased considrably, dropping from 15.4 per cent in 2.1 per cent in 2023.

And the number of suspected drug-related fatalities (not limited to those involving opioids) also decreeed, from 67 in 2022 to 56 in 2024.

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The 2025 Community Drugs Strategy Action Plan, released this week, Builds on Progress Made since the Strategy was launched in 2016. It includes 12 Recommendations Developed With Local Stakeholders.

Tea Brantford-Brant Community Drugs Strategy Is a Partnership that included Local Public Health Agencies and Municipal Organizations.

“The 2025 Action Plan Reflects Our Community’s Ongoing Commitment to Addressing Substance Use Challenges Through Collaboration, Education and Innovative Approaches,” SAID Alyssa Stryker, Drugs Strategy Coordinator at Grand Erie Public Health. “We Remain Focused on Reducing Harm, Improving Access to Treatment and Supporting All Individuals Impact by Substance Use.”

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Progress made by the Community Drugs Strategy in 2024 Included:

• Scaling up the Availability of the Prevent Program that promotes mental health and aims to delay substance abuse among youth.

• Through the “SAFER Supply Pilot,” Customers reported a decreased use of unregulate substances, Decreased use of money SPPE on Drugs, and Decreeased Commitment in Criminal Activities. FIFTY-EIGHT per hundred reported PRACTISING SAFER USE OF DRUGS COMPARED TO BEFORE TO ENTERED THE PROGRAM.

• Expanded Awareness of and Access to Naloxone Among Older Adults in Brantford-Brant.

• Continue support of an expanded midwifery program that provids greater access to low-barrier and reproductive health care among pregnant people with lived or living experience of drug use. As of early November, the program supported 19 pregnant individuals.

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The Report also listed some challenges Faced Last Year.

• The Minister of Health Announced It Wouldn’T Be Funding New Consumption and Treatment sites, Which Had Been a Priority for the Drugs Strategy Singe Its Inception.

• The Drugs Strategy continued to Struggle to Find a Judge with the Capacity to Préid Over A Drug Treatment Court. This year, it will explore alternative diversion models for substance users involved in the short system.

• Staffing Challenges LED to the End of An Initiative To Assess Support Needs of Businesses and Service Providers in Downtown Brantford Related to Drug Use.

The 2025 Action Plan Includes 12 Recommendations:

• BUILD CAREGIVERS ‘CAPACITY to respond to and delay drug use among youth.

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• Anti-Stigma Edition Education Among Service Providers With the Goal of Ensting People Who Use substances Are Treated With Respect and Dignity.

• Collaborate with the Ontario Health Team’s Mental Health and Addictions Steering Committee to Pilot of Cross-Sector Screening for Substance Use Disorders.

• Explore Ways to Increase Access to Substance Use Disorder Treatment Services for Those Involved With The Criminal Justice System.

• Develop A Program Proposal and Seek Funding to Improve Unregulated Drug Market Monitoring and Reduce Overdose Risk Through Expanded Drug Checking.

• Expand Access to Harm Reduction Supplies in the County of Brant.

• Identify gaps and recommend improvises to substance usement continuum of care.

• ENTURE FUTURE YEARS ‘Action Plans Included input from People who USE OR HAVE USED Drugs.

• If Funding is receive, Support the Integration of Brantford’s Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hub Into the Subsida System.

• Pilot A Program to Improve Overdose Response in Retal Buildings to Reduce Overdoses When People Are Alone in Private Dwellings.

• Explore Barriers to Primary Care Providers Integrating People With Substance Use Disorders Into Their Practices and Identify Opportunities to Reduce Barriers.

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