A new study revealed that people experiencing homelessness account for increasing numbers of overdose-related deaths in Ontario.
The study, by the University of Western Ontario, was published on Tuesday in the Journal Addiction.
It found that about one in six people killed by opioid overdoses in 2021 were unhoused, compared to one in 14 people in 2017.
The opioid epidemic in Canada has killed tens of thousands of people in the last two decades, and between 2017-2021 the national rate of opioid-related deaths has nearly doubled from 10.7 to 20.7 deaths per 100 000 population, the study said.
More specifically, the quarterly proportion of opioid-related overdose deaths among people experiencing homelessness increased from 7.2 per cent in July–September 2017 to 16.8 per cent from April–June 2021, the study found.
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Additionally, compared to housed individuals, people experiencing homelessness were younger, had higher prevalence of mental health or substance use disorders and more often visited hospitals and emergency departments, in the year prior to death, the study also said.
Researchers examined data from coroner and health administrative records for 6,644 adults who died as a result of opioid intake in Ontario betweenJuly 1, 2017 and June 30, 2021.
Researchers concluded that people experiencing homelessness are drastically over-represented among opioid overdose-related deaths, and that the burden has “dramatically increased,” in turn underpinning the necessity of readily available “multi-dimensional, tailored programmes and services designed to meet the specific needs of the population.”
