Red Deer saw a 32 per cent drop in opioid-related deaths in the first eight months of the year compared to the same period last year.
According to the Alberta Substance Use Surveillance System, 23 deaths were reported between January and August, compared to 34 during those same months in 2023.
2023 was Red Deer's deadliest year for opioid poisonings with 55 deaths. It was also the worst for year for Alberta Health Services Central Zone when 128 people died.
In the first eight months of this year, 59 Central Albertans died from opioid-related poisonings which is 28 per cent less than during those same months last year when 82 people died.
Nov. 24 to 30 is National Addictions Awareness Week, and Mental Health Minister Dan Williams said there have been positive trends throughout 2024 with 37 per cent fewer opioid-related fatalities in Alberta than in 2023 according to statistics so far.
"We are cautiously optimistic and pleased to see this decrease in the number of people losing their lives to addiction," Williams said in a statement.
“Our government has now opened three world-class recovery communities, with eight more on the way. We look forward to expansions exclusively for youth addiction treatment services as we know how important that will be. Other work through the Virtual Opioid Dependency Program, partnerships with Indigenous communities and future legislation will continue strengthening Alberta’s recovery-oriented system of care," the minister said.
But Mike Parker, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, said too many Albertans are dying before accessing the care they seek.
The association, which represents health-care professionals providing addiction care in the public health-care system, said the government has only opened 200 spaces in recovery communities, with little long-term support available afterwards.
"The government's recovery communities are a privately delivered, one-size-fits-all treatment approach. Addiction care is health care, and it should be publicly delivered by trained health care professionals in a manner that meets the unique recovery needs of each patient. Unfortunately, this kind of addiction care is not available to every Albertan who needs it, and the government is not acting with the urgency needed," said Parker, in a statement.
Friends of Medicare said this week must be a time to commit to treating addictions care as health care, and to putting patients ahead of profits.
“We should be providing addictions care to Albertans through the public health care system. Instead, at every turn, our government has been signing contract after contract with for-profit providers,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare, in a statement.
The group said the government’s health care restructuring agenda is a guise to siphon off our public health care dollars towards under-regulated, for-profit providers.
“We must ensure that these health care services are evidence-based, publicly delivered and well regulated, with the full transparency and accountability that Albertans and their families deserve," Gallaway said.
