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Resource Round-up: Opioids & harm reduction
Pharmacists across the country are on the front line of the opioid crisis and are often the first health-care provider to observe signs of opioid use disorder. From assessing new and long-term prescriptions to identifying patients with risk factors and educating patients with harm reduction strategies, pharmacists play a key role balancing safety with decreased pain and overall improvement to quality of life.
Our practice resources related to opioids and harm reduction are designed to support you in your role as an opioid steward.
COVID-19 & CDSA exemptions
During the COVID-19 pandemic, temporary exemptions to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) were issued to permit pharmacists to extend, renew, adapt, transfer, and deliver opioid-related prescriptions. Over the past year, CPhA has been helping pharmacists navigate these exemptions with the resources in this section.
- Opioid Stewardship Under the New CDSA Exemptions – Watch the recording of the May 2020 webinar
- COVID-19 and Controlled Drugs and Substances – A chart outlining how these exemptions have been implemented across Canada, by province/territory
- How to Accept a Verbal Order – A practice tool
- How to Transfer a Prescription – A practice tool
- How to Adapt a Prescription – A practice tool
- How to Extend a Prescription – A practice tool
- Pharmacists’ perceptions of the Canadian opioid regulatory exemptions on patient care and opioid stewardship – Canadian Pharmacists Journal
Naloxone
These practice tools are intended to support patient education. Share this information with your community as supplementary information to counselling and education programs on preventing overdose deaths.
- How to Administer Naloxone by Injection – A video tutorial
- How to Administer Naloxone Nasal Spray – A video tutorial
- Infographic: Administering Naloxone Nasal Spray
Opioid stewardship
- Pharmacists as Opioid Stewards: A showcase of the evidence – Watch the recording of the October 2020 webinar and read the key takeaways
- An evidence-based framework for helping patients using opioids for chronic pain – Watch the recording of the September 2019 webinar and review the slide deck
- An interprofessional approach to treating patients with opioid use disorder – Watch Part 1 and Part 2 of the webinar recording from March 2019
- How you can be an opioid steward – Watch the recording of the June 2018 webinar
Pharmacists in the spotlight
- Opioid Steward Spotlight Stories – Meet a handful of pharmacists stepping up as prominent opioid stewards in their communities
- How pharmacists can help: A mother’s perspective – A video
- How stigma affects patient care: A mother’s perspective – A video
A pharmacist’s story
Meet Craig Plain, a Vancouver pharmacist on the frontlines of the opioid crisis. His unique practice brings him out from behind the pharmacy counter and into the community to help his patients.
For more evidence, resources, and advocacy tools supporting a harmonized scope of practice for pharmacists to better manage opioid therapy, you can also visit the Pharmacists Opioid Stewardship Initiative (POSI), part of the Canadian Pharmacists’ Harmonized Scope (CPHS) project.
Our Resource Round-up series gathers our available resources and practice tools on important health topics to help you in your practice. Check out our other Resource Round-ups on topics like Mental Health and Women’s Health.
Last updated on August 30, 2021