We are moving our next TDUU meeting to the evening. Our next meeting is this Thursday June 9 from 6pm - 8pm. Dinner will be served!!! It will be held at South Riverdale Community Health Centre 955 Queen Street East. TTC will be provided.
We have invited CounterFit and the researchers with the Methadone Project to present to the Union. The findings of their research are of great interest to so many of us.
The Methadone Project explored methadone users’ interactions with doctors, pharmacists and the criminal justice system. In February, 47 people were interviewed who are currently on methadone (31 men & 16 women). They found lots of interesting information relating to the importance of methadone in people’s lives as well as the challenges people face on a daily basis. Here are some stats from the project:
• 62% of participants were unaware of grievance procedures if they have a problem with their methadone doctor
• 62% of participants reported missing a dose because of hours at clinic or doctor’s office
- 75% of women participants missed doses compared to 55% of men
• When a dose is missed for 3 days in a row 49% of participants reported that their prescribed dose is lowered
• 32% of participants reported that their pharmacies have different hours for methadone clients compared to non-methadone clients
• 30% of particpants reported that they don’t feel they are consistently receiving their prescribed (un-tampered) dose from their pharmacist.
• 31% of women participants reported “very often” being interrupted when getting methadone because pharmacists gave preference to serving non-methadone clients (compared to 19% of men)
• 37% of participants have been stopped, frisked or harassed by police when entereing or leaving their methadone doctor in the last year.
They also found significant gender differences in length of wait time for people receiving their methadone prescription inside the prison system (a lot longer for women) and in dosage received (women were more than twice as likely to receive a lower dose compared to men). As part of our presentation and next steps we are planning to brainstorm on ways of taking action on inequalities faced by people on methadone.
Please come out, bring friends who may be interested and join us in this really important discussion!!
