How pharmacists can create awareness about opioid addiction

By Patrick Callan, Communications Coordinator

 Emma Koivu doesn’t need to read about the opioid crisis in textbooks or hear about it on the news to understand the severity. 

The University of Toronto (U of T) Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) student sees it every day in her community. 

“The opioid crisis is very prevalent up here,” says Emma, who is currently doing a fourth-year rotation in her native Thunder Bay, Ont. 

In 2018, there were 44 opioid-related deaths in Thunder Bay—a 42% increase from the previous year.

“Through my years as a pharmacy assistant and as a pharmacy student, I’ve always known that as a pharmacist I would be dispensing Methadone and Suboxone for opioid use disorder treatment,” says Emma.

That’s one of the main reasons Emma was thrilled when she heard CAMH is offering the Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Course for the first time—and for free—to fourth-year U of T PharmD students. 

The online course consists of six modules, live webinars, videos, quizzes, case studies, discussions, and a final paper. 

“I always planned on taking this course, but because of the cost and student loans I wouldn’t have taken it probably for a few years even though I would have been practicing with patients with opioid use disorder,” she says. “This gets me that knowledge a lot sooner.”

Emma especially likes the live webinars. She’s attended two so far: one with a physician and one with a patient. 

“They’ve been really good because it gives you the perspective from the physician and the patient and you know these are real people, not just a scenario,” she says.

Emma also really likes how the course focuses on the importance of interprofessional collaboration.

“As pharmacists, we’re the ones dispensing Methadone and Suboxone to patients on a daily or weekly basis and we’ll often detect things we can communicate to physicians that they might not have otherwise picked up on like if a patient is missing doses.”

Maria Zhang, Clinician Educator and Advanced Practice Clinical Leader (Pharmacy) jointly between CAMH and U of T, says demand for the Opioid Use Treatment Disorder course has been astronomical amongst practicing pharmacists. In this first offering to students, more than 200 of the 240 fourth-year pharmacy students have enrolled.

“We typically offer this course to practicing clinicians,” says Maria, one of the course instructors. “This year, with the generous support from CAMH Education, we’ve made it available for free to fourth-year pharmacy students to get them this in-depth training earlier in their career.”

Maria says the course builds on existing content taught at U of T to give pharmacy students the confidence and competence in working with patients who are already receiving treatment for opioid use disorder or may be displaying early signs of it. 

“With their additional training, they’ll be able to navigate challenging situations, such as cases of intoxication or relapse, with openness and respect.” she says. 

By providing a multi-faceted view of opioid addiction, Maria hopes the course will also encourage pharmacy students to play an increased advocacy role.  

“Hopefully they’ll have a better understanding of the patient’s experience and if they work in a setting that doesn’t yet treat patients with opioid use disorder, they can advocate for timely access to evidence-based treatment,” she says. 

Emma adds there’s a lot that goes into safely treating patients with opioid use disorder and it’s important for pharmacists to know how to do that properly. 

“Being on the frontline, pharmacists have a really important role to play in treating patients with opioid use disorder,” says Emma. “This course will definitely help me in that role, as well as everyone else who takes it.”