Big news for SUHN!

SUHN has received funding through a CIHR HIV and STBBI Community-Based Research Team Grant as a Principal Knowledge User. The project is led by Dr. Carol Strike and Dr. Adrian Guta, with Rebecca Penn and Colin Johnson as Principal Knowledge Users, alongside a pan-Canadian team of researchers, community organizations, and people with lived and living experience. We’ll be sharing more about the Team Grant in the weeks ahead! Stay tuned!

This funding means Rebecca is returning to SUHN full time as Manager. It will also support SUHN activities through operational funds, including compensation for people with lived and living experience who are engaged in our work. For example, SUHN will now be able to offer a small honorarium of $25 to people with lived and living experience who attend our weekly interdisciplinary meetings.

We’re also creating a new capacity-building role: Knowledge Mobilizer and Leadership Trainee. This position is designed to build on the strengths, skills, and expertise of a person with lived/living experience by having them work alongside Rebecca and grow as a future KTE and organizational leader. We are very excited that Andrzej Celinski will be taking up this role.

Over the months ahead, Andrzej and Rebecca are eager to relaunch SUHN as a dynamic, responsive, and engaged community of practice, where members are actively connecting, sharing, learning, and working together.

We will be reaching out to members through surveys and we will be establishing an Advisory Council to help guide SUHN’s next phase.

Our next newsletter will come out the 2nd week of August and it will contain more information about our activities and ways for you to get involved.

If you’d like to participate in building the next phase of SUHN, please reach out to Rebecca and Andrzej at info@substanceusehealth.ca.

July Webinars

The 3rd webinar in our series “What happens when care gets taken away?”

Stories of Sanctuary & Loss

Thurs. July 9th, 2026

9am PT / 10am MT / 11am CT / 12pm ET / 1 pm AT / 1:30 NT

Moderated by Zoe Dodd  (MAP Urban Health Solutions)

with Travis, Sam, Ashley, Akosua, Ally, & Jo

Supervised consumption services are more than healthcare; to many, they are a sanctuary. In this webinar, panelists from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario share their personal stories of what these sites have meant to them, and the devastating ripple effects left behind when they are dismantled.

We'll also learn about how mutual aid and community education attempts to mitigate the gaps.Our first two webinars focused on research findings. In this webinar, hear directly from those most impacted by the loss of care.

The 4th webinar in our series “What happens when care gets taken away?”

Pleasure and overdose response:

how people wake up matters

Wed. July 22nd, 2026

10am PT / 11am MT / 12 pm CT / 1pm ET / 2pm AT / 2:30 NT

Speakers: Dr. Geoff Bardwell and community partners

While most conversations about opioids focus on risk, harm, and overdose, we also need to understand why people use opioids in the first place, including experiences of pleasure, relief, and euphoria.

In this webinar, Dr. Geoff Bardwell will share findings from interviews with people who use opioids in Kitchener and Galt, Ontario, who spoke about getting high, overdosing, and “coming to” afterward. Geoff and community partners with experience working in and/or using supervised consumption services will discuss how context shapes people’s experiences of getting high, overdosing, and being revived.

A key focus will be why the way people wake up matters — including the difference between coming to with oxygen and support, compared to coming to after naloxone.

In the context of supervised consumption services closing in Ontario and other parts of Canada, this conversation will explore what may be lost when people no longer have access to spaces where overdose response can be grounded in care, dignity, and choice.

August Webinars

Tracking Injustice

Date to be determined.

The Tracking Injustice team will be coming to lead another conversation about their work, with a focus on substance use issues, incarceration, and interactions with law enforcement.

Stay tuned for more information

Lived and Living Experience of Mental Health, Substance Use, and Incarceration in Nova Scotia

Thurs. Aug. 20th, 2026

10am PT / 11am MT / 12 pm CT / 1pm ET / 2pm AT / 2:30 NT

Speakers: Laura (Carleton Univ), Jessi and Fern (MOSH, NECHC)

A new Nova Scotia report, based on research conducted in partnership with Mobile Outreach Street Health (MOSH), explores the intersecting experiences of mental health, substance use, and incarceration, and what needs to change.

In this webinar, members of the study team will share findings from interviews with people with lived and living experience, highlighting gaps in care, release planning, housing, and continuity between custody and community.

The report includes 32 recommendations for action and calls for stronger collaboration across corrections, health, community services, and community-based organizations.

Come hear about the findings, explore the recommendations, and discuss what it will take to bring them to life.

Connect with SUHN Community

New: The Emergency Overdose Prevention Fund

Organized by Catalyst Philanthropy

The Emergency Overdose Prevention Fund is a set of short-term projects that support community-based organizations across Ontario as they adapt following the closure of many supervised consumption sites. These projects will meet immediate needs and generate evidence and learning to understand how to best deliver lifesaving harm reduction supports over the longer-term. For more information and to donate, please see the website.