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The Renfrew County Health and District Unit (RCDHU) have published their drug strategy progress report for this year’s third quarter.
RCDHU’s drug strategy their mission to reduce substance use and harm based on four pillars; prevention, harm reduction, treatment and community safety.
The RCDHU reports that suspect drug toxicity deaths have been on a steady rise since 2019, with the highest record in 2023 when there were 41 deaths which is the highest ever locally recorded.
The four pillars represent objectives of the RCDHU to reduce drug harm, such as improving accessibility to health services and providing the correct types of service to the right demographics such as youth.
RCDHU’s third quarter progress report contains promising results for substance use treatment.
In the prevention pillar; RCDHU reports that since opening in 2021 the Renfrew County Youth Wellness Hub has more than doubled the amount of youth served year-over-year.
They are also developing school-based partnerships with organizations such as the Phoenix Centre for Children and Families to easily offer educational programming.
In the treatment pillar; last winter the Mesa Warming Centre, which was open from Dec. 7, 2024, until April 30, 2025, had 83 guests with 89 per cent of visitors being from Pembroke.
The Mesa Warming Centre was set up to provide warm shelter for those who needed it last winter.
This year RCDHU said local officials successfully applied for a $6.3 million investment from the Government of Ontario to establish a Mesa Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hub.
In the harm reduction pillar; so far there have been 1944 doses of naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, distributed this year.
RCDHU also had 770 harm reduction interactions with clients.
In the community safety pillar; RCDHU said their harm reduction program had a 129 per cent return rate for needles and syringes in 2024 which means that the total number in public circulation is decreasing.
As of Oct. 9, 2025, there has been a 60 per cent decrease in suspected drug toxicity deaths in Renfrew County compared to 2024, with a decrease between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025 from eight to four deaths.
As of the Oct. 9, cutoff there have been 10 total deaths this year compared to 29 for all of 2024 and 41 for all of 2023.
They also report opioid overdoses are much common in men with five men dying of overdoses per one woman, a ratio of 5:1.
Emergency visits to Renfrew County hospitals due to opiate overdoses have been on a downward trend as well.
Each quarter in 2025 so far reports 10 visits each, compared to 2024’s 37 visits in Q1, 28 visits in Q2 and 13 visits in Q3.
The total number of individuals making emergency visits for 2025 is less than half the previous year’s total as of Oct. 24, 2025.
Weeks 21 to 28 in 2025 had a streak of zero emergency visits related to opiate overdoses.
(Written by Mik Horvath)
