Fentanyl. (Supplied by Canadian Press)

By David Opinko

University of Calgary creating opioid treatment solutions for Southern Alberta First Nations

Jul 31, 2019 | 6:01 AM

CALGARY, AB – The University of Calgary received a $713,000 grant from the federal government this week to help indigenous communities across the province tackle drug-related issues.

Assistant Professor in Family Medicine Rita Henderson says they will be using opioid agonist therapy, a medicine that helps to prevent withdrawal and reduce cravings for opioid substances.

“To try to enhance capacity in an Indigenous community context to provide an alternative sustaining treatment for people who struggle with opioid dependency, to stabilize their addiction, to reduce their withdrawal symptoms, and to help create a capacity in their lives to be able to heal from their addiction.”

As for what the exact systems they will be using will look like, well, that depends.

Henderson is working with five First Nations communities in Alberta to figure out each of their specific needs, what facilities they already have, and what can be done in the future.

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While their data sovereignty agreements prevent Henderson from naming the communities that are involved, she said it includes at least one “large” settlement in Southern Alberta.

She originally wanted the project to include a “telehealth” approach where people who are struggling with addictions can phone a service that would help to connect them to a physician.

“We’re increasingly seeing that there are providers within communities that are capable of connecting patients to the care, but sometimes, they need a specialist consultation to be able to connect at a distance to a pain specialist in Calgary, for instance, to understand how to understand how to deal with a particular question related to a complex patient of complex patient needs.”

By using this kind of model, Henderson hopes to eliminate the need for each community to have a wide array of specialists, and instead, have general practitioners reach out to specialists for assistance.

Consultations will carry on for a while as the University has enough funding for two-and-a-half years of research.