Substance Use Health Emergency
On January 20, 2022, the Government of Yukon declared a Substance Use Health Emergency in response to a surge in substance use related harms, including a drastic increase in opioid related deaths.
This declaration was a commitment to respond and a call to action to all governments, communities, organizations, partners and Yukoners to do their part. This is an ongoing, territory-wide challenge that cannot be solved by the Yukon government alone.
Learn more about where to find treatment, counselling, and harm reduction services, and find a summary of how partners across the territory are working together to respond to the Substance Use Health Emergency.
Where to get support
Mental Wellness and Substance Use Services staff provide many services across the Yukon.
If your community is not listed, call 866-456-3838 to get connected to the program closest to you.
Governments, organizations and communities across the Yukon are working together to help Yukoners with mental wellness or substance use challenges.
This means Yukoners can find the support that best suits them and their needs.
Dawson
Watson Lake
Whitehorse
To make an appointment or to learn more about Mental Wellness and Substance Use Services in Whitehorse, phone 867-456-3838 or toll-free 1-866-456-3838.
Where to find Mental Wellness and Substance Use Services in Whitehorse.
Other services in Whitehorse
Get counselling and support for families, youth and children
Responding together
The Yukon government is working with community partners, First Nations and governments to coordinate our response to the emergency. Together, we are advancing a range of treatment, harm reduction, prevention and awareness initiatives.
These include:
- Creating a Mobile Paramedic Unit through Emergency Medical Services, which includes two mobile paramedics and a paramedic at the Whitehorse Emergency Shelter dedicated to overdose response, prevention and education for those at risk of substance use harm.
- Increasing and expanding drug self-testing capability across the territory, and providing education and instructions on how to perform tests.
- Renovating and improving the Supervised Consumption Site to support inhalation as a consumption method. The site has had over 2,000 visits since opening.
- Increasing access to Opioid Treatment Services at the Whitehorse Emergency Shelter by expanding physician coverage to two days weekly. Dedicated physician support provides on-site treatment for vulnerable Yukoners seeking to stop or manage their opioid use.
- Strengthening Opioid Treatment Services by hiring seven new employees, including nurses and people with lived and living experience as community engagement workers.
- Expanding opioid medication coverage to include Sublocade, an evidence-based, extended-release, once monthly injection of an opioid medicine called buprenorphine. This makes access to treatment easier for Yukoners in rural communities.
- Launching Car 867, a mobile crisis unit that includes an RCMP officer and a trained mental health nurse. The unit provides trauma-informed, client-centred responses to mental health emergencies and wellness checks, and offers early intervention to help divert people from the criminal justice and hospital systems.
- Organizing two territory-wide public awareness and education campaigns to decrease stigma around substance use and increase awareness of the treatment, counselling and harm reduction services available from government and non-government providers.
- Gathering feedback and suggestions from Yukoners, partners and subject matter experts through several forums and gatherings. These include Youth Roots: A Substance Use Prevention Gathering, a Ministerial Advisory Committee, Communications Working Group, and Project Executive Committee.
- Hosting two Mental Wellness Summits to hear from leaders, partners, people with lived and living experience, and Yukoners interested in learning more about pressing mental wellness and substance use issues, initiatives and solutions.
- Increasing on-the-land healing and treatment options in the territory:
- Working with the Teslin Tlingit Council to develop a co-facilitated, land-based healing option in Mental Wellness and Substance Use Services (MWSUS).
- Supporting a week-long family camp at Jackson Lake in partnership with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Society Yukon.
- Developing a Roots of Hope partnership with Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin to support a land-based camp for youth who work with youth and a Mental Wellness Week in partnership with the City of Dawson.
- Partnering with the Nelson Project, which supports at-risk Indigenous and non-Indigenous men across the Yukon, for a three-day cultural learning camp.
- Supporting the Hives for Watson Lake partnership between Liard First Nation and MWSUS, which uses therapeutic and mentorship beekeeping to engage community members in activities focused on harm reduction, mental health, life promotion, suicide prevention and increased community-nature connection.
Summits and gatherings
Mental Wellness Summits
In February and September 2022, the Yukon government, in partnership with the Council of Yukon First Nations, hosted two Mental Wellness Summits to hear from leaders, partners, people with lived and living experience, and Yukoners interested in learning more about pressing mental wellness and substance use issues and solutions.
All sessions were recorded for online viewing.
Youth Roots: A Substance Use Prevention Gathering
On November 16 and 17, 2022, the Yukon government hosted Youth Roots: A Substance Use Prevention Gathering in Whitehorse. This educational forum occurred in person and virtually and welcomed health promotion practitioners, educators, researchers and community members from across the territory working in substance use prevention.
All sessions were recorded for online viewing.