ACTION SPARKED BY OPIOID OVERDOSE EMERGENCY RESPONSES

PARAMEDIC CALLS AND DEATHS SHOW ISSUE NOT ISOLATED TO ANY ONE PART OF CITY

A high concentration of opioid overdose paramedic responses within the community of Dundas over the past six years underlines concerns about a crisis that is not isolated to any particular area of Hamilton.

While central Hamilton has higher overdose response totals, Ward 13 has seen annual growth in overdose emergency responses up to a six-year high of 12 in 2022, the seventh-highest total of Hamilton's 15 wards last year.

The 48 opioid overdose responses to Ward 13, from 2017 to 2022, represent 1.3 per cent of all responses across the city. Ward 2 had 43.7 per cent, and Ward 3 had 24.1 per cent of response. Five wards had response rates below Ward 13.

Ontario's Office of the Chief Coroner reported 13 confirmed and probable opioid overdose deaths in Dundas between May 2017 and December 2022, including three in the last eight months of 2017, one in

2018, three in 2019, and two each year from 2020 to 2022.

Greater Hamilton Health Network executive director Melissa McCallum said the network's working group on harm reduction and safe supply discussed the Ward 13 and Dundas overdose response data at an early March meeting.

"We cannot ignore the fact that the opioid crisis is growing and spreading to

areas across the city — it is not a problem concentrated on the Hamilton core alone," McCallum said.

City of Hamilton public health spokesperson James Berry said a heat map showing paramedic responses to opioid overdoses indicates that while Ward 13 as a whole, which includes part of Flamborough, has fewer overdose responses than 10 of the 14 other wards, responses to

Ward 13 may be concentrated within a specific Dundas postal code, leading to a bright yellow colour indicating a high intensity.

"It's very important to note the size of the clusters on the map are expanded to limit the possibility of identifying exactly where the calls originated to protect and respect the privacy of community members," said Berry on Feb.

22.

The city later adjusted the heat map eliminating the previously bright yellow colour over Dundas that indicated a high intensity of opioid overdose paramedic responses.

McCallum said her staff also noticed the discrepancy and contacted the city's public health department.

City spokesperson Sarah Ghandour told the Dundas Star News on

March 10 the map's "colour gradient was recently updated to ensure the data more accurately depicts the number of suspected opioid overdose 911 calls per ward."

Ghandour said the "threshold of concentration for an area being coloured at the highest intensity of yellow was low, and resulted in some areas appearing to have comparable concentrations of calls when they did not" so staff reduced the number of areas showing yellow.

She pointed out that while the concentration of responses in Dundas came from a small area, the total number of calls is lower than other areas of Hamilton.

McCallum said Greater Hamilton Health Network plans to connect with the Hamilton Family Health Team to understand services that could be expanded or developed.

"We are going to work with public health about the harm reduction van and how often they are reaching that part of the city," McCallum said. "We know the Harm Reduction Van and paramedics do outreach in this area."

She said the network is trying to understand gaps in specific services, understanding people may currently have to go to the downtown areas — in Wards 2 and 3 — to access assistance.