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Local agencies keen to prevent drug overdoses and relapses

Isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic is inconvenient for some people. For others, it’s a deadly threat.

Hoping to fend off a potential wave of overdoses, relapses and even new substance abusers, local addictions experts are mobilizing to ensure people cut off from social contact and professional support are still getting help.

Windsor’s House of Sophrosyne and the Rapid Access Addiction Medicine (RAAM) Clinic have formed a “consortium” to offer immediate medical treatment and virtual counselling.

“I didn’t realize how it can have a detrimental effect on my progress of recovery,” said Brandi King, 39, a London resident who has been taking virtual addiction counselling from the House of Sophrosyne in Windsor.

“I am struggling with not having social contact. But with the coping skills and everything I’ve learned, I honestly feel if I didn’t take that program, my mental health would be much worse than what it is.”

The Windsor-essex County Health Unit also stressed Wednesday how vital it is to remember the “separate public health crisis” that has plagued many residents for years.

It said the Windsor-essex Community Opioid and Substance Strategy, a collection of local agencies, has expanded its website and is working to educate people about the “intersection” between substance abuse and COVID-19.

“While we have shifted considerable resources to support COVID-19, the other important and urgent work of the health unit and our partners does not and has not stopped,” said Dr. Wajid Ahmed, Essex County’s medical officer of health.