Sarnia doctor to help reduce opioid prescriptions in Erie St. Clair LHIN

According toHealth Quality Ontario, the Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) which covers Windsor-Essex, Sarnia-Lambton and Chatham-Kent has the highest opioid prescription rates in the province, with 18 prescriptions per 100 people.

While opioids are an effective way to relieve pain, addiction to and overdoses fromthe drugs have become what's considered amajor public health crisis.

As a result, the Erie-St. Clair LHIN has appointed Dr.Blake Pearson from Sarnia to encourage doctors to reduce opioidprescription rates in the region.

"There's a number of different ways I'd like to go about [reducing prescribing opioids]," he said. "Whether it's working with the surgeons to reduce post-op prescribing ... working with dentists to reduce their prescribing, or certain outreacheswe're going to do with family physicians as well."

Pearson,who specializes incannabinoidmedicine, stressedit's not as simple as switching patients over to cannabis-based drugs, but they can help.

"The way I view it,it's certainly an option in physician's toolbox now, so if we can ... provide more alternatives to opioids in the outset, then I feel pretty strongly we'd be able to reduce the number of [opioid] prescriptions."

Tap on the player above to hear Pearson's conversation withAfternoon Drivehost ChrisdelaTorre.

Pearson said he'll be looking at introducing strategies used in other parts of the province to help reduce the prescription rate in Erie St. Clair.

He notedthat in London, there are protocols in place which limit the length of opioid prescriptions for patients recovering from surgery.