OPIOID ADDICTION
Calls for specific strategy
With addictions rates to opioids in First Nations communities above the national average, Isadore Day, chiefs committee chair on health at the Assembly of First Nations, is calling on the federal government to consider a First Nations-specific opioid strategy.
The federal government has been working on addressing Canada’s opioid crisis over the past year, but Day says Indigenous peoples have not had a big enough role in the discussion.
“I stood firm in that the national opioid strategy shouldn’t go ahead without effective and meaningful engagement of our First Nation across the countries. So that’s what we’re doing here,” Day said Thursday at the AFN annual general assembly.
Day said the goal of Thursday’s strategy session is to collect information and direction from Indigenous health experts and leadership from across the country to inform the AFN’s opioid strategy which will then be shared with the federal government.
Carol Hopkins, executive director of the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation — a First Nations and Inuit addictions research organization — has been working with the AFN to explore possible models for dealing with opioid addiction in First Nation communities.
She spoke about early intervention programs, community-based treatment models, the Indigenous Wellness Framework and medical marijuana as ways to address the opioid crisis.
As part of the foundation’s Indigenous Wellness Framework, Indigenous and cultural practitioners, elders, people from communities across the country were asked what wellness means to them. Language was identified as an essential aspect of wellness and Hopkins said “therefore it’s critically important for prevention of addictions and specifically opioids.” Along with language, approximately 40 cultural practices and traditions were identified as important aspects to wellness.
She said defining wellness from an Indigenous perspective and facilitating wellness among First Nation communities will go a long way toward combating the opioid crisis.
Social issues affecting wellness — like poverty and inadequate education, housing, jobs and community safety — are all triggers for addiction said Day.
“These are pressure points and these are the reasons why our people are more easily addicted,” said Day. He said these social issues stem from colonial practices like Indian residential schools that took away Indigenous peoples’ language, culture, beliefs, families, land and more.
Hopkins also said harm reduction strategies — like safe injection sites or methadone programs — are an important part of the process, but some communities are resistant to the idea.
“We often hear communities that don’t want to do anything related to harm reduction,” said Hopkins. “And the perceptions come from this idea that somehow if we pay attention to reducing harms, that we’re just promoting the addiction. We’re facilitating and enabling an addiction.”
But she said a harm reduction program can actually have a very positive impact on communities struggling with addiction if “it engages community workers ... (and) celebrates the healing of people who are courageous enough to get involved in treatment for the opioid addiction.”
Hopkins said by doing so, it eliminates the shame, stigma and discrimination that surrounds people with drug addictions.
Day advocated for Suboxone programs as the preferred harm reduction strategy in First Nation communities.
“Methadone has done nothing for our people but make them more sick,” said Day. He said Suboxone is easier on the human body.
Day said as various models are explored over the next few months, the AFN will update the federal government, engage in discussions about what the best approach for First Nations is and hopefully solidify a plan going into the next fiscal year. But the AFN isn’t stopping their.
“Ultimately, the bigger solution here is health authority — securing health jurisdiction, sense of ownership in the community,” said Day.