Nevertheless,
Daily challenge | press:
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
There is not the slightest road accident in sight on Boulevard Notre-Dame in this beautiful afternoon in July. Similarly, and yet, a traffic plug blocks the artery. Nevertheless, It is that an important deployment of firefighters. Similarly, paramedics monopolizes the right track: they work with a person visibly under the influence of opioids, behind the steering wheel of a immobilized vehicle.
In the metropolis. Moreover, over the past five years, the number of-health emergency interventions for cases of consumption and overdoses linked daily challenge | press to opioids has exploded. Meanwhile, The data made public by the Montreal Regional Public Health Directorate, but never publicized, testify.
In 2020. For example, the paramedics of Montreal and Laval intervened on average 25 times a month in files that required the administration of Naloxone, an antidote used to overthrow the effects of an opioid overdose. Meanwhile, In 2024, they intervened three times more often for such cases, 81 times a month on average. However, It is nearly three interventions per day.
However. Similarly, these figures represent only a fraction of the calls linked to the consumption of opioids to which first -line stakeholders respond. Similarly, Many interventions with people with weakened faculties are not counted in this data, especially when the patient refuses Naloxone treatments. Consequently, This is the case with the operations to which The press attended the daily challenge | press beginning of the month.
Sitting in the driver’s seat of a gray SUV. In addition, the lady who was the subject of a call at 911 has very small pupils and her shorts is stained with blood, but she is still aware, capable of orienting herself and speaking.
The paramedical in advanced health care care. Moreover, which is concerned about an imminent deterioration of its state, tries to convince it to accept treatments, but it prefers to affix its signature at the bottom of a refusal form of care. For example, The police take over from the intervention, and the woman is finally arrested for driving with the weakened faculties.
daily challenge | press Photo Patrick Sanfaçon. Nevertheless, La Presse
The police took over from an intervention with a woman under the influence of opioids after she signed a refusal form of care.
“It’s a Mrs. Tout-le-Monde,” said Jean-Mari Dufresne, supervisor and emergency-health spokesperson. The opioid crisis affects people from all circles “and products are less. less pure”, which complicates the interventions of his colleagues.
Photo Patrick Sanfaçon. La Presse
Jean-Mari Dufresne, supervisor and emergency spokesperson
“We are going to have noted -marketed benzodiazepines in Canada that will be mixed with opioids,” explains Gabrielle daily challenge | press Nadaï, planning agent for the Laval public health overdoses. It can quickly name all kinds of mixtures that have circulated in Quebec. which are much more difficult to treat, since naloxone acts only on opioids.
Overdoses to other types of drugs also concern the authorities. In Laval, for example, 90 % of the consumption of hard drugs identified by public health concerns stimulants. “I suspect that there are many calls for emergency services for poisoning with various substances. not just opioids,” said the Dre Catherine de Montigny, doctor in drug addiction medicine at the CHUM.
Daily challenge | press
The antidote administered by third parties
Under the Jacques-Cartier bridge. earlier that day, another ambulance was called to treat an inert woman. When the emergency vehicle arrives, a policewoman announces to the paramedics that the woman has woken daily challenge | press up. She refuses to be transported to the hospital.
Caregivers will still spend about thirty minutes at her side before she leaves the premises on her own. in an intervention that solicits their social skills more than their knowledge of emergency intervention.
“We. our goal is to bring people to the hospital, but we do not have the authority to retain them,” explains Jean-Mari Dufresne, whose paramedical colleagues often work in concert with firefighters, police or street workers.
Interestingly. the collaboration between these different partners and the distribution of naloxone kits to the general public have considerably changed the nature of emergency-health interventions with people in overdose of opioids. Increasingly. naloxone is administered to the patient even before the arrival of the paramedics, which maximizes the chances of survival of the person in a state daily challenge | press of overdose.
Photo Patrick Sanfaçon. La Presse
Increasingly, naloxone is administered by third parties.
On average. in 2020, it was the emergency workers who gave the antidote when they arrived at the scene in nearly 65 % of interventions requiring naloxone. In 2024, they only administered the drug in approximately 35 % of interventions, show data obtained by The press. Additionally, In other cases, he was injected into the patient by other first respondents, by community workers or by simple citizens.
“This is good news. What we want is that naloxone is so known. distributed that the speakers and the daily challenge | press general public can administer them as quickly as possible to avoid damage that could be permanent, ”says the Dre de Montigny.
She adds that. even if the intoxicated person has received a dose of naloxone, the call to 911 remains good practice, since the effects of this antidote are temporary. “It could be that the administered dose is not sufficient. »»
Deaths by overdose decrease in Canada, but not in Quebec
In 2024, Canada recorded 7,146 deaths linked to opioids, which represents a decrease of 17 % compared to the data of 2023. However, a drop in Quebec was not observed.
While other provinces such as British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario recorded a decrease in the number of deaths related to opioids daily challenge | press compared to 2023, Quebec reported 645 deaths of this type in 2024, an increase of 19 % compared to figures of 2023.
“It’s true that our curve [de croissance] is different. This is possible linked to the fact that fentanyl arrived late in Quebec compared to the Western provinces. but there can be many other factors that play, hence the importance of having local data to scrutinize our practices, “underlines the Dre Catherine de Montigny. “When we look at the raw figures. that said, Quebec is clearly below several other provinces in terms of number of deaths. »»
« [À l’échelle du Canada]these are 20 deaths per day, underlines the Dre Marie-Eve Goyer, assistant medical chef of roaming services, dependence and mental health at the CIUSSS of the Center-Sud-de-l’île-de-Montréal. These are preventable deaths by means that we know and that daily challenge | press we still do not implant. »»
“If we had data like that for other pathologies, such as measles, meningitis or covid, it would have been a long time since we would have settled,” she said. The truth is that there are people who die and that it doesn’t bother anyone. It is not a crisis of overdoses, it is a crisis of stigma. »»
With the collaboration of Fannie Arcand, The press
Daily challenge | press
Further reading: A high level meeting was held in Cotonou ` – The new forum – This cheese is one of the best for health, according to a dietician – “Ghost” pains, really? – Press release: Sanofi will acquire vicebio and enrich its pipeline of respiratory vaccines – This sixty -something man had a tumor with a big brain like an orange threatened to make him lose his word.
