Heather Morris
Biography:
Dr. Heather Morris RN PhD (pronouns she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at UofA. Her research interests focus on substance use and harm reduction, public opinions of harm reduction, and health care service utilization by urban underserved people who use substances. Her research program has also focused on how family members with lived and living experience engage in advocacy to shape drug policy reform in Canada. She is a research scientist/affiliate with the Inner City Health and Wellness Program, Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton and has worked in partnership with a variety of community agencies/not-for-profit groups including Boyle Street Community Services and Moms Stop the Harm.
Node Funded Project (Sept 2025)
Title: Examining the perceptions and experiences of women & gender-diverse people who have survived a drug poisoning/overdose in Edmonton’s inner city
Principal Investigators: Heather Morris
Co-investigators/collaborators: Dr. Elaine Hyshka, Dr. Vera Caine, Dr. Ginetta Salvalaggio, Dr. Ginger Sullivan, Dr. Rebecca Haines-Saah, Ms. Sarah Auger
Description:
Our team recently received a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Individual Partnership Engage Grant for our study entitled, Examining the perceptions and experiences of women & gender-diverse people who have survived a drug poisoning/overdose in Edmonton’s inner city. Our research objectives are to: 1) Inquire into the experiences of drug poisoning/overdose as described by womxn; 2) Map the current health and social service utilization patterns of womxn; 3) Identify the need for gender-sensitive and gender-specific programs and policies; and 4) Examine the strengths that womxn possess as survivors of drug poisoning/overdose in addressing their drug poisoning risks. We will meet these objectives through our longstanding partnership between health and social science
researchers and our community partner Boyle Street Community Services (BSCS).
This study builds directly off of our CRISM-Prairie Node funded cross-sectional study in partnership with BSCS entitled, Understanding the short- and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people who use substances in Edmonton’s inner city. In 2023 we surveyed 499 people who use drugs, 168 (33.7%) of whom identified as female (7/499 or 1.4% gender diverse). A total of 56/168 (33.3%) of women and 3/7
(43%) of gender diverse participants indicated that they had overdosed in the past 6 months. This finding has prompted BSCS and university researchers to explore this topic in more detail given BSCS’s interest in better supporting womxn clients who use drugs. While researchers in other major Canadian cities, particularly Vancouver, have explored gendered dimensions of drug use, very little has been documented
about this issue in Edmonton.
