Mastodawn

'You are going to be outraged': Mother speaks ahead of inquest into daughter's death at Niagara hospital
Community members gathered Thursday in Fort Erie, Ont., to pay tribute to Heather Winterstein, a young woman whose death raised questions about how Indigenous people and those with mental health and substance use issues are treated in the health-care system. An inquest into her de...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/heather-winterstein-coroner-inquest-niagara-health-9.7144716?cmp=rss

CBC Top Stories 21h ago

CBC Hamilton 1d ago

'You are going to be outraged:' Mother speaks ahead of inquest into daughter's death at Niagara hospital
Community members gathered Thursday in Fort Erie, Ont., to pay tribute to Heather Winterstein, a young woman whose death raised questions about how Indigenous people and those with mental health and substance use issues are treated in the healthcare system. An inquest into her dea...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/heather-winterstein-coroner-inquest-niagara-health-9.7144716?cmp=rss

Martin Pratt Mar 21

📄 In #CAMH: Self‐reported changes in adolescent mental health, deliberate self‐harm, substance use, and help‐seeking behavior before and after the COVID‐19 pandemic – A Finnish time‐trend study
👉 https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.70040
#MentalHealthResearch #EvidenceBased #SelfHarm #SubstanceUse

Thomas D. Embree 🇨🇦Mar 19

If you follow harm reduction or want to know more about the topic, you might enjoy this Medium article I wrote about how moralized narratives hurt recovery.

#HarmReduction #DrugPolicy #SubstanceUse #Substances #Drugs #Health #Healthcare #Canada #Politics #CdnPoli

https://medium.com/@thomas.embree/mental-illness-personal-crises-substance-use-a76a49e79a71

Mental Illness, Personal Crises & Substance Use

Why Moralized Narratives Hurt Recovery

Medium

CBC Nova Scotia Mar 17

What can Halifax learn from other Canadian cities with sobering centres?
There are more than a dozen sobering centres across Canada but Halifax is scrapping plans for such a facility because it struggled to find a landlord due to "a lot of stigma around substance use and mental illness."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-sobering-centre-struggles-calgary-port-alberni-kenora-9.7131136?cmp=rss

Martin Pratt Mar 17

“Studies drawn from across the world, although these are dominated by western sources, consistently show that twice as many young men as young women are exposed to drugs.”

https://www.acamh.org/topic/addiction
#ChildMentalHealth #EvidenceBased #SubstanceUse

Addiction & Substance Use

Irrespective of the age group it is just as important to be aware of what we don’t know as what we can be more confident about. This is particularly true of young people and drug use, as most research investigating prevention and interventions has tended to focus on adult populations.

ACAMH

Thomas D. Embree 🇨🇦Mar 11

Harm reduction saves lives by reducing overdoses, preventing disease, and connecting people to care. Abstinence-only fails substance users, with higher rates of illness, overdose, and relapse.

#HarmReduction #DrugPolicy #SubstanceUse #Substances #Drugs #Health #Healthcare #Canada #Politics #CdnPoli

Thomas D. Embree 🇨🇦Mar 9

Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis due to discrimination and culturally inappropriate treatment. Harm reduction saves lives and can help preserve cultural identity.

#HarmReduction #DrugPolicy #Health #Healthcare #SubstanceUse #Indigenous #FirstNations

Psychotherapy Commission ACPE Mar 9

This brief text offers a concise look at national trends in overdose mortality, which has clear relevance for mental health practitioners focused on risk assessment, relapse prevention, and resource planning. The report highlights a substantial decline in fatalities from prior peaks, followed by a plateau, underscoring the ongoing need to tailor interventions to populations at continued risk and to monitor shifts in underlying drivers such as substance use patterns and accessibility of care.

For social workers, counselors, and clinicians across mental health disciplines, the material illuminates the evolving landscape of substance-related harms and the importance of integrating ongoing prevention, early intervention, and continuity of care into practice. It also signals the value of collaboration across sectors to sustain progress and address residual mortality risk.

Article Title: Opinion: America must not learn to live with 72,000 overdose deaths a year

Link to STAT NEWS Mental Health Article: https://www.statnews.com/2026/03/09/drug-overdose-deaths-opioids-decline-plateau/?utm_campaign=rss

Copy and paste broken link above into your browser and replace "dot" with "." for link to work. We have to do it this way to avoid displaying copyrighted images.

#overdoseprevention #substanceuse #mentalhealthpolicy #addictionresearch #publichealth

America must not learn to live with 72,000 overdose deaths a year

With the drop in overdose deaths, “we're celebrating: a death toll that exceeds total American combat fatalities in Vietnam, every single year,” writes addiction researcher Wayne Kepner.

STAT