County opioid exhibit garners provincial award
Article content
An exhibit that dove into opioid addiction that was created by Strathcona County’s Community Drug Strategy Committee recently received a special honour.
The Family and Community Support Services Association of Alberta (FCSSAA) presented Mayor Rod Frank with an Award of Excellence for the Opioids Don’t Discriminate: An Interactive Experience exhibit.
Frank accepted the award on behalf of Strathcona County’s Community Drug Strategy Committee in November.
“This exhibit achieved something that was seemingly impossible: we were able to build empathy while also breaking down stigma about those living in an opioid crisis,” Frank said in a release. “I’m appreciative of our partners’ expertise that enabled the telling of a very real and relatable narrative of what it’s like to be impacted by opioid use.”
The exhibit is one-of-a-kind and profiles local opioid use statistics and community support while offering first-hand stories to follow the journey of three different people experiencing the real-life effects of opioid use.
“We were so thankful to be able to learn from people who walked the opioid addiction path and they helped inform the exhibit to make sure the stories were authentic, connected to reality and very much telling that human personal story,” explained Bree Claude, director of Family and Community Services (FCS) in Strathcona County, who was also at the event to accept the award with the mayor.
Since the exhibit wrapped up in the county, it has been travelling around Alberta due to demand.
“The exhibit has travelled to three other communities already, including Medicine Hat, Red Deer and Lethbridge, and there are some other communities that are requesting to have the exhibit in their own communities as well,” she said. “We didn’t create this exhibit with the intention of putting it up and taking it down multiple times and we’re being very cautious because there may be some wear and tear over time, but we want to make sure it gets the most use it can and helps as many communities as possible.”
Edmonton and Lloydminster have both also booked the exhibit for use in 2020 already. Currently, there are no plans to set it up in the county again, as there were more than 1,200 people who visited it when it was set up in the Community Centre’s Agora in from April 30 to May 3.
“Over half of the attendees were under the age of 18 and one of the things we were trying to achieve with the exhibit was increasing awareness, decreasing stigma and increasing empathy for folks struggling with this addiction,” Claude said. “One of the things we measured was when folks walked into the exhibit, we asked them about their level of empathy or understanding around opioid addiction and we measured again when they left and the majority of people indicated they had more empathy and understanding of people addicted than when they came in.”
The FCS director also recalled one man who toured the exhibit and was very touched by it.
“He came back the next day and said he had a serious conversation with his child and learned that opioid addiction is an issue for him,” Claude said. “We saw it was having an impact and started conversations with community members, which we know is part of stepping forward as a healthy community.”
The award-winning exhibit was created due to the increase in the number of deaths related to opioid use was increasing. Strathcona County Family and Community Services convened the Community Drug Strategy Committee with members from 16 community partners that included Alberta Health Services, the RCMP, grassroots addictions groups, community supports and the local primary care network.
Because of the demand for the exhibit by other communities, the county is creating a do-it-yourself kit that will be downloadable in the New Year so other communities can access it and customize it with their own data. FCS also hopes to take the exhibit to the national stage in 2020.
tdosser@postmedia.com
twitter.com/travisdosser
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.