Fatal overdoses
According to the BC Coroners Service, in May 2018 109 died from an overdose across BC, including 33 people in the VCH region.
Overdoses seen at Emergency
In June 2018 there were 607 overdoses seen at nine VCH Emergency Departments. The majority of overdoses occurred in males (72%) and in people aged 19 to 39 years (56%).
Supervised Consumption and Overdose Prevention Sites
Insite
In June 2018, there were 10,263 visits to the supervised injection room. Among those, 99 overdoses were reversed.
Powell Street Getaway
In June 2018, there were 1,697 visits to the supervised injection room. Among those, 16 overdoses were reversed.
Overdose Prevention Sites
In June 2018, there were 29,953 visits to the five supervised injection rooms. Among those, 133 overdoses were reversed.
In May 2018, 325 drug checks were performed and 60% of substances tested were found to contain fentanyl.
What's happening
Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care are extremely concerned about the high number of overdoses and overdose deaths in our region and throughout the province and continue to take steps to respond. VCH & PHC and its partners are taking a number of steps to reduce opioid/fentanyl-related overdoses, including new actions this month:
- The Overdose Outreach Team helped 153 new clients in June
- Established 4 new sites where people can obtain take home naloxone kits for a total of 371 sites across VCH
- Sent one alert about drug contamination via the Real-time Drug Alert & Response (RADAR) System
- VCH supported a Village of Wellness Fair at Tsleil-Waututh Nation and distributed 30 naloxone kits
- Women in the Overdose Crisis community planning conversation held to identify and prioritize gaps and
- opportunities for this population.
- Trained Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society (WAHRS) members in using nasal naloxone.