Opioid advice line for health care professionals launches Tuesday

Pilot project aims to help physicians not familiar with treating dependence

CALGARY Alberta health professionals are launching a new phone service in an effort to save lives and curb a growing opioid crisis.

The opioid dependency advice line, which launches Tuesday, offers expert consultation for primary care physicians and nurse practitioners caring for patients with opioid dependence.

“In the province, not all family physicians are going to be comfortable or have experience in treating opioid dependence, particularly in using the medications,” said Dr. Nick Mitchell, Alberta Health Services’ provincial medical director with addictions and mental health.

The advice line, a pilot project running through February 2018, is meant to reduce barriers to lifesaving treatment.

It is equipped with four specialists working in Edmonton and Calgary Opioid Dependency Program clinics and operated by Alberta Health Services’ Referral, Access, Advice, Placement, Information and Destination team.

The service connects individuals with specialists who can give advice on managing patients who are misusing opioids and prescribing drugs that help with addiction.

Mitchell said the call line is particularly helpful in offering timeconscious help.

“Any time there’s a gap in treatment there’s a potential to lose patients,” Mitchell said.

“If we have an individual seeing their family physician and they’re talking about opioid dependence and we have an opportunity to intervene at that point, then we’re more likely to get that individual engaged in treatment than if we have to wait for them to be referred on to a specialist.”

Additionally, not everyone in the province lives close to a specialist.

He hopes patients who get help from the call line might also engage with other addiction services, like counselling.

“With the right preparation and supports, opioid use disorder can be as straightforward to treat as other chronic diseases, such as diabetes or hypertension,” said Bonnie Larson, a family physician at the Calgary Urban Project Society.

“The outcomes can be dramatic, with individuals moving from chaos to stability, illness to health, quite quickly,” Larson said.

In the first three months of this year alone, 113 people in the province died from an apparent drug overdose related to fentanyl. There were 70 reported during the same period in 2016.

For all of 2016, there were 443 confirmed drug overdose deaths in Alberta, 68 per cent of which were linked to fentanyl or other opioids.

Mitchell said they are not only seeing more overdoses but also increased visits to emergency departments.

In 2016, there were 9,037 emergency visits related to opioids and other substances of misuse, compared to 7,516 visits the previous year.

Mitchell is unsure what the demand will look like, but will be monitoring the responses during and after the project.

The team will also develop resources for health care providers based on recurring questions they receive.

“I think this is a really great opportunity for us to expand our ability to treat opioid dependence at the level of primary care.”