(Montreal) The Ministries of Education and Health and Social Services are currently working on a reference framework for care in the school environment, The Canadian Press has learned. Part of this guide for educational institutions will deal with the distribution and administration of drugs in emergency situations, including epinephrine injectors, known by the brand name EpiPen.
This frame of reference would also recommend that each school have an injector; Currently, a few schools have one, but students with allergies are legally responsible for bringing theirs to school.
This measure echoes a petition tabled in the National Assembly by the CAQ MP for Mirabel, Sylvie D’Amours, who asks that the responsibility for equipping themselves with injectors now falls to primary schools. The CAQ members of the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Culture and Education, however, refused to take up the missive on Wednesday, due to the work and reflections already underway on the subject, said in an email the chief whip’s office. of the government.
Currently, the food supply is controlled in schools to avoid the presence of allergenic foods, both in cafeterias and vending machines, but also in snacks brought by students or meals provided by catering services, a clarified by e-mail the press relations service of the Ministry of Education.
Note that nine foods are responsible for approximately 90% of allergic reactions, underlines Allergies Québec, which makes this procedure “utopian”. “It’s almost impossible to go there in exclusion,” says Dominique Seigneur, director of communications and development of the organization.
Some school service centers and school boards have also implemented intervention protocols to react in the event of anaphylactic shock.
But no universal measure is applied at the level of the province, which is the only one in the country not to have legislated in this direction.
Looking for a case manager
At the moment, each school is managing the situation as best it can, according to Allergies Québec, which has been campaigning for more than fifteen years for the adoption of a standardized and extended framework.
The result is “questionable practices, such as keeping auto-injectors in the school office rather than within immediate reach of the allergic person, or even ineffective measures such as banishing certain foods and isolating ‘students with allergies during meals,’ read an open letter co-signed by the organization on the occasion of Quebec Food Allergy Day, on March 21.
Allergies Québec notes a “marked interest” from the political class, all parties combined, for the question, especially since it is estimated that 75,000 schoolchildren have one or more food allergies and that approximately one reaction out of five severe allergies occurred in schools.
“Our file is well received and no one is against this desire to supervise young people, but it is as if we had no file holder. We do not manage to have the necessary leadership to move things forward. It’s mysterious,” laments M.me Lord.
In June 2018, the Parti Québécois, then in opposition, tabled a bill for Quebec to legislate to impose a universal protocol in the event of a severe allergic reaction. The Minister of Health at the time, the Liberal Gaétan Barrette, had himself raised the idea of providing all schools with an EpiPen.
In 2019, the Minister of Health under the CAQ, Danielle McCann, opposed the imposition of a single protocol and preferred instead “a guide to good practices”, reported the daily Le Soleil.
“Big common sense”
Like defibrillators available in a growing number of public places, or even fire extinguishers in the event of a fire, injectors should be available to schoolchildren, as are first aid kits in the event of minor injury, believes the Association of Autonomous Parents’ Committees of Quebec (RCPAQ).
“It’s a good idea at the base, I see no argument to support the contrary, commented in an interview with The Canadian Press Sylvain Martel, strategic advisor and spokesperson for the RCPAQ. There are ideas that don’t need to be thought about for years to make good sense. »
Mr. Martel, however, believes that it is wrong to think that offering epinephrine injectors in schools will remove the burden of carrying one from students, as the petition suggests.
“It’s a great idea to have one in schools, in case a student’s is out of date, but keep in mind that kids who really need an EpiPen will carry one around with them. wherever they go, whether walking to school, on the bus or to visit friends. »
Between 6 and 8% of elementary school children have a food allergy.
This dispatch was produced with financial assistance from the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for News.