CCENDU

Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (CCENDU)

CCENDU, organized by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA), is a collaborative project involving federal, provincial, and community agencies, and focuses on monitoring drug use, health and legal consequences of use, treatment, and law enforcement. Local sites across Canada collect, collate, and interpret data and information in eight major drug use areas: alcohol, cocaine, cannabis, heroin, sedative-hypnotics and tranquilizers, hallucinogens other than cannabis, stimulants other than cocaine, and licit drugs. For each of these drug use areas, data is collected on prevalence, law enforcement, treatment, morbidity, mortality, and HIV/AIDS/HepC, including injection drug use and needle exchange information. Information on emerging drugs and trends is also collected.  More information on the national network is available here.

As part of the revitalization of CCENDU, Saskatoon was provided seed funding from CCSA.  The purpose of the Saskatoon CCENDU report was to provide organizations and individuals working in fields related to alcohol and drug use with real-time information on substance use in Saskatoon.  A mixed method data collection approach was used.  Specifically, previously collected quantitative data from several outside sources were drawn upon in addition to a 114-question survey completed by 51 respondents from various drug-related sectors in Saskatoon.  Respondents included pharmacists, emergency physicians, treatment professionals, drug enforcement officers, paramedics, drug users, nurses, social workers, medical health officers, and representatives from non-profit organizations all of whom were recruited using convenience sampling methods.  Survey Monkey© was used to develop and distribute the questionnaire as well as to analyze the data. An interpretation panel validated the findings.

The inaugural Saskatoon CCENDU Report  and Voice-over PowerPoint was publishedby M. Bell, C. Dell and R. Duncan in March, 2011.  A copy of the CCENDU report Survey is available.

 To connect with the Saskatoon CCENDU network, please contact Molly Bell at Molly.Bell@usask.ca or visit CCENDU Saskatoon on GoogleGroup.