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Police and Crisis Teams (PACT) see RCMP and mental health nurses providing critical mental health services

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News release from Red Deer RCMP

Red Deer RCMP bring attention to suicide and mental health

As Sept. 10th approaches, Red Deer RCMP would like to take time to recognize the importance of World Suicide Prevention Day.

Suicide and mental health are difficult topics to discuss and often carry stigma and shame. Far too often these 2 things act as barriers and prevent people from getting the help they need and deserve.

Many individuals struggle with mental health on a daily basis. Asking for help or listening to a friend or family member can be difficult when we don’t know what to say or where to turn.

Red Deer RCMP would like to reach out to our community and fellow citizens to let them know they are not alone. As police officers we acknowledge suicide exists. Members receive training which prepares officers responding to calls for service when dealing with suicide ideations and suicidality.

In Red Deer we are fortunate to have two Police and Crisis Teams (PACT) that are specially trained in suicide and mental health. PACT is a collaborative partnership between Red Deer Primary Care Network (PCN) and Red Deer RCMP. Our PACT teams consist of a police officer paired with a registered psychiatric nurse (RPN).

For the last 12 years, PACT has been responding to mental health crisis calls providing initial intervention in Red Deer. Our PACT teams are well versed in dealing with suicide and mental health, and are often called upon for their experience alongside other police officers.

Our PACT team is an integral part of an innovative police response in our community.

We are proud to have RPN Michelle, Constable Floroiu, Constable Kokkola, and RPN John providing mental health response in our community.

If you, or someone you know is struggling with mental health or suicide, contact the Alberta Mental Health Help line, 24-hour service, 1-877-303-2642.

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armed forces

Yet another struggling soldier says Veteran Affairs Canada offered him euthanasia

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From LifeSiteNews

By Jonathon Van Maren

‘It made me wonder, were they really there to help us, or slowly groom us to say ā€˜here’s a solution, just kill yourself.’

Yet another Canadian combat veteran has come forward to reveal that when he sought help, he was instead offered euthanasia.Ā 

David Baltzer, who served two tours in Afghanistan with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry,Ā revealed to theĀ Toronto SunĀ that he was offered euthanasia on December 23, 2019—making him, as theĀ SunĀ noted, ā€œamong the first Canadian soldiers offered therapeutic suicide by the federal government.ā€

Baltzer had been having a disagreement with his existing caseworker, when assisted suicide was brought up in in call with a different agent from Veteran Affairs Canada.Ā Ā 

ā€œIt made me wonder, were they really there to help us, or slowly groom us to say ā€˜here’s a solution, just kill yourself,ā€ Baltzer told the Sun.ā€œI was in my lowest down point, it was just before Christmas. He says to me, ā€˜I would like to make a suggestion for you. Keep an open mind, think about it, you’ve tried all this and nothing seems to be working, but have you thought about medical-assisted suicide?ā€™ā€Ā 

Baltzer was stunned. ā€œIt just seems to me that they just want us to be like ā€˜f–k this, I give up, this sucks, I’d rather just take my own life,ā€™ā€ he said. ā€œThat’s how I honestly felt.ā€Ā 

Baltzer, who is from St. Catharines, Ontario, joined up at age 17, and moved to Manitoba to join the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, one of Canada’s elite units. He headed to Afghanistan in 2006. TheĀ SunĀ noted that he ā€œwas among Canada’s first troops deployed to Afghanistan as part Operation Athena, where he served two tours and saw plenty of combat.ā€Ā 

ā€œWe went out on long-range patrols trying to find the Taliban, and that’s exactly what we did,ā€ Baltzer said. ā€œThe best way I can describe it, it was like Black Hawk Down — all of the sudden the s–t hit the fan and I was like ā€˜wow, we’re fighting, who would have thought? Canada hasn’t fought like this since the Korean War.ā€Ā 

After returning from Afghanistan, Baltzer says he was offered counselling by Veteran Affairs Canada, but it ā€œwas of little help,ā€ and he began to self-medicate for his trauma through substance abuse (he noted that he is, thankfully, doing well today). Baltzer’s story is part of a growing scandal. As theĀ SunĀ reported:Ā Ā 

A key figure shedding light on the VAC MAID scandal was CAF veteran Mark Meincke, whose trauma-recovery podcast Operation Tango Romeo broke the story. ā€˜Veterans, especially combat veterans, usually don’t reach out for help until like a year longer than they should’ve,’ Meincke said, telling the Sun he waited over two decades before seeking help.Ā 

ā€˜We’re desperate by the time we put our hands up for help. Offering MAID is like throwing a cinderblock instead of a life preserver.’ Meincke said Baltzer’s story shoots down VAC’s assertions blaming one caseworker for offering MAID to veterans, and suggests the problem is far more serious than some rogue public servant.Ā 

ā€˜It had to have been policy. because it’s just too many people in too many provinces,ā€ Meincke told the Sun.ā€Æā€œEvery province has service agents from that province.’

Veterans Affairs Canada claimed in 2022 that between four and 20 veterans had been offered assisted suicide; Meincke ā€œpersonally knows of five, and said the actual number’s likely close to 20.ā€ In a previous investigation, VAC claimed that only one caseworker was responsible—at least for the four confirmed cases—and that the person ā€œwas lo longer employed with VAC.ā€ Baltzer says VAC should have military vets as caseworkers, rather than civilians who can’t understand what vets have been through.Ā 

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Jonathon’s writings have been translated into more than six languages and in addition to LifeSiteNews, has been published in theĀ National Post,Ā National Review,Ā First Things, The Federalist, The American Conservative, The Stream, theĀ Jewish Independent,Ā theĀ Hamilton Spectator,Ā Reformed Perspective Magazine, and LifeNews, among others. He is a contributing editor to The European Conservative.

His insights have been featured on CTV, Global News, and the CBC, as well as over twenty radio stations. He regularly speaks on a variety of social issues at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

He is the author ofĀ The Culture War,Ā Seeing is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of Abortion,Ā Patriots: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Pro-Life Movement,Ā Prairie Lion: The Life and Times of Ted Byfield, and co-author ofĀ A Guide to Discussing Assisted SuicideĀ with Blaise Alleyne.

Jonathon serves as the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

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2025 Federal Election

Study links B.C.’s drug policies to more overdoses, but researchers urge caution

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By Alexandra Keeler

A study links B.C.’s safer supply and decriminalization to more opioid hospitalizations, but experts note its limitations

A new study says B.C.’s safer supply and decriminalization policies may have failed to reduce overdoses. Furthermore, the very policies designed to help drug users may have actually increased hospitalizations.

ā€œNeither the safer opioid supply policy nor the decriminalization of drug possession appeared to mitigate the opioid crisis, and both were associated with an increase in opioid overdose hospitalizations,ā€ the study says.

The study has sparked debate, with some pointing to it as proof that B.C.’s drug policies failed. Others have questioned the study’s methodology and conclusions.

ā€œThe question we want to know the answer to [but cannot] is how many opioid hospitalizations would have occurred had the policy not have been implemented,ā€ said Michael Wallace, a biostatistician and associate professor at the University of Waterloo.

ā€œWe can never come up with truly definitive conclusions in cases such as this, no matter what data we have, short of being able to magically duplicate B.C.ā€

Jumping to conclusions

B.C.’s controversial safer supply policies provide drug users with prescription opioids as an alternative to toxic street drugs. Its decriminalization policy permitted drug users to possess otherwise illegal substances for personal use.

The peer-reviewedĀ studyĀ was led by health economist Hai Nguyen and conducted by researchers from Memorial University in Newfoundland, the University of Manitoba and Weill Cornell Medicine, a medical school in New York City. It was published in the medical journal JAMA Health Forum on March 21.

The researchers used a statistical method to create a ā€œsyntheticā€ comparison group, since there is no ideal control group. The researchers then compared B.C. to other provinces to assess the impact of certain drug policies.

Examining data from 2016 to 2023, the study links B.C.’s safer supply policies to a 33 per cent rise in opioid hospitalizations.

The study says the province’s decriminalization policies further drove up hospitalizations by 58 per cent.

ā€œNeither the safer supply policy nor the subsequent decriminalization of drug possession appeared to alleviate the opioid crisis,ā€ the study concludes. ā€œInstead, both were associated with an increase in opioid overdose hospitalizations.ā€

The B.C. government rolled back decriminalization in April 2024 in response to widespread concerns over public drug use. This February, the province also officiallyĀ acknowledgedĀ that diversion of safer supply drugs does occur.

The study did not conclusively determine whether the increase in hospital visits was due to diverted safer supply opioids, the toxic illicit supply, or other factors.

ā€œThere was insufficient evidence to conclusively attribute an increase in opioid overdose deaths to these policy changes,ā€ the study says.

Nguyen’s team had published an earlier, 2024Ā studyĀ in JAMA Internal Medicine that also linked safer supply to increased hospitalizations. However, it failed to control for key confounders such as employment rates and naloxone access. Their 2025 study better accounts for these variables using the synthetic comparison group method.

The study’s authors did not respond to Canadian Affairs’ requests for comment.

 

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Correlation vs. causation

Chris Perlman, a health data and addiction expert at the University of Waterloo, says more studies are needed.

He believes the findings are weak, as they show correlation but not causation.

ā€œThe study provides a small signal that the rates of hospitalization have changed, but I wouldn’t conclude that it can be solely attributed to the safer supply and decrim[inalization] policy decisions,ā€ said Perlman.

He also noted the rise in hospitalizations doesn’t necessarily mean more overdoses. Rather, more people may be reaching hospitals in time for treatment.

ā€œGiven that the [overdose] rate may have gone down, I wonder if we’re simply seeing an effect where more persons survive an overdose and actually receive treatment in hospital where they would have died in the pre-policy time period,ā€ he said.

The Nguyen study acknowledges this possibility.

ā€œThe observed increase in opioid hospitalizations, without a corresponding increase in opioid deaths, may reflect greater willingness to seek medical assistance because decriminalization could reduce the stigma associated with drug use,ā€ it says.

ā€œHowever, it is also possible that reduced stigma and removal of criminal penalties facilitated the diversion of safer opioids, contributing to increased hospitalizations.ā€

Karen Urbanoski, an associate professor in the Public Health and Social Policy department at the University of Victoria, is more critical.

ā€œThe [study’s] findings do not warrant the conclusion that these policies are causally associated with increased hospitalization or overdose,ā€ said Urbanoski, who also holds the Canada Research Chair in Substance Use, Addictions and Health Services.

Her team published aĀ studyĀ in November 2023 that measured safer supply’s impact on mortality and acute care visits. It found safer supply opioids did reduce overdose deaths.

Critics, however,Ā raised concernsĀ that her study misrepresented its underlying data and showed no statistically significant reduction in deaths after accounting for confounding factors.

The Nguyen study differs from Urbanoski’s. While Urbanoski’s team focused on individual-level outcomes, the Nguyen study analyzed broader, population-level effects, including diversion.

Wallace, the biostatistician, agrees more individual-level data could strengthen analysis, but does not believe it undermines the study’s conclusions. Wallace thinks the researchers did their best with the available data they had.

ā€œWe do not have a ā€˜copy’ of B.C. where the policies weren’t implemented to compare with,ā€ said Wallace.

B.C.’s overdoseĀ rateĀ of 775 per 100,000 is well above the national average of 533.

Elenore Sturko, a Conservative MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale, has been a vocal critic of B.C.’s decriminalization and safer supply policies.

ā€œIf the government doesn’t want to believe this study, well then I invite them to do a similar study,ā€ she told reporters on March 27.

ā€œShow us the evidence that they have failed to show us since 2020,ā€ she added, referring to the year B.C. implemented safer supply.


This article was produced through the Breaking Needles Fellowship Program, which provided a grant toĀ Canadian Affairs, a digital media outlet, to fund journalism exploring addiction and crime in Canada. Articles produced through the Fellowship are co-published by Break The Needle and Canadian Affairs.

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