A group of trade unions, health care advocates and non-profits are calling on the province to take action against the opioid crisis, and they say construction workers are particularly vulnerable.
One Step Ahead: Listed recommendations for the Ontario government to help fight the opioid crisis, including improving access to more treatment options.
Jeremy Baker, with Local 27 Carpenters Union, said he was just 16 years old — on his first job — when he saw the effects of opioid addiction on the trades.
“The passenger I was training had an opiate addiction, and I watched him go from being an active member of society to eventually dying,” Baker told CBC Toronto in an interview.
“It scared me … and since then, it's been one person a year who has passed away under similar circumstances.”
According to the 2022 report Ontario Drug Policy Research NetworkOne in 13 opioid poisoning deaths occurred among people working in the construction industry.
The alliance has given four suggestions to the state government.
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Establish an emergency task force to coordinate efforts.
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Launch a virtual opioid addiction treatment service.
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Improve funding models to prioritize patients' needs.
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Allow pharmacists to administer opioid medication.
The proposals are meant to empower people with addictions seeking treatment and recovery, said family physician Dr. Larissa Ibisch said.
She said they often work long shifts, face the isolation of remote work, suffer from painful injuries and the pressure of a “work hard, hard mentality”, including easy access to drugs at work.
A new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests that emergency rooms may be prescribing more opioids than needed for pain management, leaving patients with extra pills that could be abused or misused. The study recommended that pharmacies dispense only half a prescription at a time.
“You look at these cultural factors, and it's no surprise to see that addiction and opioid use disorder in particular are ubiquitous in the trades,” Ebisch said.
More than three-quarters of opiate poisoning deaths among commercial workers occurred in people who had a prior pain diagnosis, she said, but only one in six received a prescription for an opioid replacement drug.
“This tells us that there's a problem with people dying of opioid poisoning in the trades, they're addicted, and still they're not accessing care,” Ebisch said.
“With this alliance we want to target.”
The province has said that it has invested in addiction control
The province is working to create a “modern mental health and addiction support system,” a health ministry spokesperson told CBC Toronto in a statement.
“As part of our government's 2024 budget, we are investing an additional $396 million over three years to continue to support the sustainability, improved access, and expansion of existing mental health and addictions services and programs in the years ahead,” spokeswoman Hannah Jensen said. .
Paul Martin's latest audit raises concerns about the length of time people in need have to wait for treatment.
She did not respond to questions about whether the province is considering or plans to adopt the coalition's recommendations, but Jensen said the Ontario government is the first in North America to require naloxone kits at construction sites — a move Ibisch applauds.
“But that's only part of the solution,” Ebisch said.
Stigma still prevents many workers from accessing care, said Finn Johnson, spokesman for the Carpenters Regional Council, which represents workers in Ontario and Western Canada.
“There's a bit of a macho attitude in construction … you have to be tough because you're doing physical work,” Johnson said.
Baker, now 36, said unions are very supportive of workers and will do their best to help people in need, but that doesn't change the underlying problem: men are overworking themselves in difficult conditions.
He said he has worked 120 days straight, all 12-hour shifts, something that is common among his peers.
He said, 'We are dismembering our bodies.
