What are your reactions to the Sharing Together Evidence Priority Agenda?

I would 'urge caution', as most professions have their own unique biases and 'esoterics'. The substance abuse field, as a profession, may not concur with the 'Public health Model's promoted by Canadian Physicians such as Gabor Mate, or those noted in Vincent Felitti, M.D.'s 2004 paper: "The Origins of Addiction: Evidence from the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study". Prioritizing Evidence, may favor the professionals who avail it, rather than the "Consumers", "Persons-With-Lived- Experience", and "Just Folk". If Everyone's 'Evidence' is included, rather than being subject to 'Priority Agenda'.... Am I acting like a Librarian ? (Especially, like one who hasn't [yet] read: "Get the Full Report here" ? ? ?

Great  report  with lots of  terrific   ideas.

The  evidence  themes listed on  p 48 mention the  older adult  however, I do not  see older adults reflected in any other place in the  document.   Evidence suggests that this population  is among the  highest users of health care yet  less than  2% of those with Substance  Use disorders  actually access  treatment.  Older adults with SUD  have the  highest rates of  hospitalizations and longest length of stay  for  alcohol related admissions vs  the general population.  This is in my  opinion  a priority population. 

Youth and  older adults are the populations most adversely  affected by the opiate  crisis.   Both  are a priority. 

I am  wondering how this report is capturing the older adult in the priority evidence  areas.

Thanks for the feedback @MARILYNWHITECAMPBELL!

We agree that older adults are a priority population. This was actually one of the initial evidence themes out of our environmental scan looking at priority-setting documents for the mental health, substance use, and addictions system (page 48). Dialogue participants however, did not select this as one of their top evidence priority needs.

Specific evidence needs highlighting older adults did come up in the following areas:

Prevention and promotion, including suicide prevention

• How to engage those who may be at-risk, such as youth and isolated older adults, in prevention, promotion, and early identification initiatives. (page 29)

Continuum of Housing and Homelessness

• Suitability of transitional housing compared to other models for different needs and populations, including older adults. (page 19)

With regards to representation of older adults in the Sharing Together process, there were 58 participants representing older adults at the dialogues (page 52), and for the online survey 85 representatives (page 61).

If you have any ideas on how to engage this priority population in responding to the evidence needs above, as well as the rest of the evidence needs to include their voices, please let us know!

Hi @MARILYNWHITECAMPBELL

CCSA is releasing a report in March titled Improving Quality of Life: Substance Use and Aging that will provide a summary of the best available evidence on substance use among older adults.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for your comment @Registered Member! The evidence priority agenda outlined in the report looks beyond research evidence to a more complete view of evidence - such as the expertise of service providers and people with living and lived experience, family members, and caregivers, as well as culturally-based knowledge. The intention of the Sharing Together initiative was to bring together different stakeholders from multiple sectors with diverse perspectives to ask them where evidence is needed in the system, and why, and then to follow that by working collaboratively to identify, share, or create that evidence, rather than to suggest which types of evidence should be used and when.

As a EENet Steering Committee member, I found this report to be both exciting and a bit of a letdown simultaneously.

On one hand, this is the *definitive* snapshot of research priorities as identified by the most inclusive spectrum of Ontario stakeholders.

On the other, one wonders when the money will come, and how PWLE-directed it would be, not to mention the expressed wishes of family members.  Keeping in mind that consumer/survivors may choose families out of their choice rather than by biological ties, one must be mindful that "family" be spoken with nuanced feeling also.

One certainly hopes that the Mental Health and Addictions Branch at the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will study and amplify this report widely at Queen's Park.

Another audience for this report are the key figures in the organization that is slated for closure March 31st, 2018.  That is the Ontario Mental Health Research Foundation.  It turns out that there will be a Mental Health Research Canada up and running soon any time now.

The names are the same.  The website promises a call for submissions by the MHRC mid-2018.

So, folks, get your pencils ready!  I am hopeful some of us can get to test out our priorities for real.

Raymond