The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA), in partnership with the National Advisory Council (NAC) on Prescription Drug Misuse, released a 10-year, pan-Canadian strategy, “First Do No Harm: Responding to Canada’s Prescription Drug Crisis.” “First Do No Harm: Responding to Canada’s Prescription Drug Crisis” is a national strategy that addresses prescription drugs that have legal status and therapeutic uses, but also pose high potential for harms. This initiative brought together stakeholders devoted to all aspects of prescription drugs, including a variety of health practitioners (physicians, pharmacists, nurses, dentists and coroners), patient and family organizations, First Nations representatives, enforcement officials, regulators, industry leaders and researchers. There is specific attention devoted to First Nations, rural and geographically isolated communities in the strategy to highlight their unique needs.
The recommendations were developed around five streams of action: Prevention, Education, Treatment, Monitoring and Surveillance, and Enforcement. In addition to the five streams, three other areas cut across all streams and are relevant to this work: legislation and regulations, research, and evaluation and performance measurement.
For more information go to the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse website.