Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say they are partnering with a local addiction and mental health agency to help individuals with addictions who do not have a family doctor in Haldimand and Norfolk counties.
The overdose automatic referral (OAR) program, in collaboration with Community Addiction and Mental Health Services (CAMHS), was announced as part of Overdose Awareness Day in Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk counties on Monday.
The OAR program allows OPP to make automatic referrals to outreach teams comprised of counsellors, peer workers and nurses when police attend opioid-related calls involving a person unable to communicate with officers.
“The OPP is pleased to partner with the Addiction Mobile Outreach Team (AMOT) which provides support to individuals living with substance use concerns, problem gambling or concurrent disorders,” OPP Insp. Joseph Varga said in a statement on Monday.
“This program will be utilized and will definitely make a positive impact in our community.”
Varga revealed that since 2018, OPP in the region have investigated 171 occurrences involving suspected and confirmed, fatal and near-fatal opioid overdoses. Twenty-eight of those calls ended up as fatalities.
So far in 2020, the OPP say they have attended 68 opioid-related calls for service with nine fatalities.