Welcome to the SURE Updates and Blog Posts, featuring project updates and the voices of key influencers in public health & substance use. Please note that the views expressed in SURE Blog posts are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Canadian Public Health Association or Health Canada.
The Canadian Substance Use Resource and Knowledge Exchange Centre (SURE) Newsletter aims to share information, events and resources relating to a public health approach to substance use in Canada. Sign up here or catch up on past editions of the SURE Newsletter below:
This February, we recognize and celebrate the role that Black people in Canada have played in advancing equity and promoting wellness in their communities, while acknowledging that racism has shaped and continues to be the cause of important and avoidable disparities in substance use health an…
Categories: Anti-oppression
The Canadian Public Health Association & CAPSA are pleased to announce the launch of a new Organizational Assessment Tool for Substance Use and Stigma! This tool was designed to help organizations identify policies, along with environmental and cultural factors that contribute to substance u…
Categories: Stigma
Between March and May 2021, CPHA engaged with communities in Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Ontario to better understand the range and availability of substance use services in each community, explore what they would like to see to better support people who use drugs, and identify next steps to close th…
This July will mark 1 year since SURE's official launch! To celebrate, we want to highlight some of the great new resources that have been added in 2022. Find articles, online learning modules, reports and more on topics from harm reduction and decriminalization to stigma reduction. Explore the…
Categories: Harm reduction Stigma
The Normalizing Conversations team is happy to share the Canadian Public Health Association's endorsement of Bill C-216, the Health-based Approach to Substance Use Act. Both in Canada and globally, the criminalization of people who use drugs has exacerbated substance use stigma and increased the…
Categories: Policy
By: Matthew Bonn Everyone always thinks that the majority of drug buying online happens on the dark web. Even when I say dark web, a lot of people have no idea what I am talking about. As defined by Merriam-Webster, the dark web is the set of web pages on the World Wide Web that cannot be i…
Categories: Harm reduction
The Community Addictions Peer Support Association (CAPSA) and the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) are pleased announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, which formalizes their collaboration and shared commitment to ending stigma and discrimination towards people with lived and…
By: Matthew Bonn As someone who works in the harm reduction and drug policy field, we don't nearly talk about housing enough. We look at people experiencing homelessness as a whole other category of people, yet they are the same people we support. When it comes to housing, from my experienc…
Categories: Housing
By: Sandra McNeil As a new MSW graduate, I started my first position in a community addiction agency providing counseling services to people seeking support with their substance use and other concerns (e.g., gambling). Despite important shifts in how we understand and treat mental health …
Categories: Stigma