Primary Care and Other Professionals

National and provincial guidelines and resources for primary care practitioners have been modernized to reflect the contemporary needs presented by the opioid use disorder crisis. The tools listed below provide practitioners with detailed standards to aid them in their prescribing practices and pain treatment decision-making.

National Pain Centre Clinical Practice Guideline

Developed by the Canadian National Pin Centre at McMaster University, the purpose of this clinical practice guideline is to provide guidance on the use of opioids to manage chronic non-cancer pain for adults (18 years of age or older). Chronic non-cancer pain, for purposes of this guideline, includes any painful condition that persists for ≥3 months that is not associated with a diagnosis of cancer.

Opioids Use Disorder (Opioid Addiction)

This quality standard focuses on care for people 16 years of age and older (including those who are pregnant) who have or are suspected of having opioid use disorder. The scope of the standard covers all services and settings, including nursing homes, mental health settings, remote nursing stations, and correctional facilities, in all geographic regions of the province.

Opioids Prescribing for Chronic Pain

This quality standard provides guidance on the prescribing, monitoring, and tapering of opioids to treat chronic pain for people 15 years of age and older in all care settings. It does not address opioid prescribing for acute pain or end-of-life care, nor does it address the management of opioid use disorder in depth. Please refer to Health Quality Ontario’s Opioid Prescribing for Acute Pain quality standard and Opioid Use Disorder quality standard for detailed quality statements related to these topics.

Opioids Prescribing for Acute Pain

This quality standard provides guidance on the prescribing, monitoring, and tapering of opioids to treat acute pain for people aged 15 years of age and older in all care settings. It does not address opioid prescribing for chronic pain or end-of-life care, nor does it address the management of opioid use disorder in depth. Please refer to Health Quality Ontario’s Opioid Prescribing for Chronic Pain quality standard and Opioid Use Disorder quality standard for detailed quality statements related to these topics.

OFCP Medical Mentoring for Addictions and Pain Network (MMAP)

The MMAP initiative is intended to support physicians with expertise in pain management and addictions including methadone prescribers to mentor family physicians interested in chronic pain and or addictions.

Women’s College Hospital METAPHI

Mentoring, Education, and Clinical Tools for Addiction: Primary Care–Hospital Integration (META:PHI) is a collaborative project to create new care pathways for addiction. Website contains a toolkit that includes ED protocols for alcohol and opioid-related presentations, tools for primary care regarding safe opioid prescribing and management of opioid and alcohol use disorders, and printed materials for patients. METAPHI is also an email forum for health care providers across Ontario to discuss addiction-related clinical issues, policies, and recent articles.

Health Quality Ontario (HQO) My Practice Report

MyPractice reports will now enable family physicians to confidentially see their individual opioid prescribing patterns in relation to peers across the province.

North Simcoe Muskoka Healthline

NSM Healthline provides up-to-date information about health services in the North Simcoe Muskoka region.

CAMH - Safe and Effective Use of Opioid for Chronic Non-cancer pain Online Course

This online course provides health care workers with evidence-based tools and recommendations from the Canadian Guidelines for Safe and Effective Use of Opioids for Chronic Non-cancer Pain.

CAMH - Opioid Use Disorder Treatment (OUDT) Course: An Online Course for Front-Line Clinicians
This course aims to present a framework for providing maintenance treatment for opioid dependence with buprenorphine/naloxone, including its use in a primary care setting.