The 2025 report on the Renfrew County and District Health Unit’s Drug Strategy provides some promising results.
RCDHU’s latest information outlines 12 deaths within the region where drug toxicity was suspected this past year, a 59% decrease from 2024 (29) and a 71% drop from 2023 (41). That drop comes as opioid-related emergency department visits also decreased by 37% in 2025, with 53 ER visits compared to 83 in 2024.
The health unit’s strategy, which focuses on prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and community safety, has also distributed 2442 doses of naloxone, trained 304 community members on how to administer it, and expanded access to the potentially life-saving spray by onboarding 17 local partners into the Ontario Naloxone Program.
Their strategy also has the RCDHU working closely with the county’s MESA initiative, whose officials have successfully applied for $1.8 million dollars from Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program Funding to expand their mobile substance use services program.
The county also secured a three-year, $6.3 million investment from the Government of Ontario to establish a Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub, which officially opened in early February.
(written by Kasey Egan)