Bereaved mothers’ media coverage and public support for harm reduction in Canada

Abstract

Background

Mothers whose child’s death is related to substance use have emerged as prominent and outspoken critics of Canadian drug policy in the news media. We examined the extent to which, and who among, the general public has seen or heard mothers bereaved by substance use in the media; predicted factors associated with exposure to such media; and explored associations with public acceptance of harm reduction.

Methods

We analyzed data from a 2018 online panel survey assessing Canadian views on harm reduction, using randomly-drawn provincially representative (N = 4645) and nationally representative (n = 2002) samples of adults.

Results

A majority (58.3%) of Canadians had seen or heard media featuring a mother whose child had died from an overdose. Respondents who had an increased level of familiarity with people who use drugs as well as older respondents were significantly more likely to have reported exposure to bereaved mothers’ media. Respondents who had been exposed to bereaved mothers’ media coverage were less likely to respond ‘don’t know/no opinion’ of harm reduction vs. opposing harm reduction.

Conclusion

Additional studies using a variety of methods are required to further evaluate the advocacy work being undertaken by mothers bereaved by substance use.

Keywords:

• Harm reduction
• public opinion
• bereavement
• media advocacy

Authors’ contributions

Conceptualization: Heather Morris, T. Cameron Wild, Elaine Hyshka, Diane Kunyk, Tania Bubela, Petra Schulz

Data Curation: Heather Morris, T. Cameron Wild, Jakob Koziel

Formal Analysis: Heather Morris, T. Camerion Wild, Elaine Hyshka, Hauwa Bwala, Jakob Koziel

Funding Acquisition: T. Cameron Wild, Elaine Hyshka

Investigation: Heather Morris, T. Cameron Wild, Elaine Hyshka

Methodology: Heather Morris, T. Cameron Wild, Elaine Hyshka, Diane Kunyk, Tania Bubela

Project Administration: Heather Morris, T. Cameron Wild, Elaine Hyshka

Resources: Heather Morris, T. Cameron Wild, Elaine Hyshka,

Software: Heather Morris, T. Cameron Wild, Elaine Hyshka, Jakob Koziel, Hauwa Bwala

Supervision: T. Cameron Wild & Elaine Hyshka

Validation: T. Cameron Wild & Elaine Hyshka

Visualization: Heather Morris, T. Cameron Wild, Elaine Hyshka

Writing Original Draft: Heather Morris, Cam Wild, Elaine Hyshka

Writing Reviewing & Editing: Heather Morris, Cam Wild, Elaine Hyshka, Diane Kunyk, Tania Bubela, Jakob Koziel, Hauwa Bwala, Petra Schulz

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data are available from https://borealisdata.ca/dataverse/ualberta

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research under grant CIHR; MOP 137073; https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/193.html) to TCW and EH; an infrastructure grant from CIHR to the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM), Prairie Node under grant # CRISMN139151; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Award under grant # 752-2019-2510 to HM; Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship to HM; the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Alberta Women’s Health Foundation under grant #2221 to HM; the Canada Research Chairs program through a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Health Systems Innovation under grant # CRC TIER2 233345 which supports Elaine Hyshka. The funders did not play any role in the manuscript.

Notes on contributors

Heather Morris

Heather Morris is a registered nurse and postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta.

T. Cameron Wild

Cam Wild is a Professor, School of Public Health.

Hauwa Bwala

Hauwa Bwala was a research coordinator with the School of Public Health at the time this study was conducted.

Jakob Koziel

Jakob Koziel works as a senior research analyst at Bissell Centre, transforming data into insight and analyzing internal and external data to strategically link information to the agency’s mission, vision, and long-term outcomes.

Petra Schulz

Petra Schulz is a founding member of Moms Stop the Harm. Through the lessons learned after losing her youngest son Danny to drug poisoning, Petra has become an advocate for drug policy reform aimed at reducing the harm associated with the criminalization of substance use.

Diane Kunyk

Diane Kunyk is Vice Dean and Professor, Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta.

Tania Bubela

Tania Bubela is Professor and Dean, Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University.

Elaine Hyshka

Elaine Hyshka is an Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair in Health Systems Innovation and Associate Professor, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Alberta and Scientific Director, Inner City Health and Wellness Program, Royal Alexandra Hospital.