By Tom Mark

Kelowna Mobile Safe Consumption Site Overwhelmed

Aug 8, 2017 | 5:57 AM

Interior Health’s supervised mobile consumption site in Kelowna has been operating for a couple of weeks now.

If there was ever any question over its need, that answer has come quickly.

Medical health officer Dr. Silvina Mema says demand is high.

“People are using the service which was the main purpose of it. However, pretty quickly, at least in Kelowna we are noting that the service is getting overwhelmed.”

Dr. Mema says people are also using the unit to access other services.

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” The mobile is there to provide supervised consumption services. There is a lot of people coming to the mobile to access other services, other harm reduction services because they don’t have another place to go for that.”

She says the biggest demand is in downtown Kelowna.

Dr. Mema says it’s a challenge, but not a surprise.

“It is not a surprise, but it is a concern that at this time where we are in the middle of a crisis that is hitting hard some of our communities in the Interior, we are struggling to provide services to some of the most vulnerable people.”

The mobile unit will be strongly evaluated and may lead to a request for a fixed location.

That evaluation may also determine whether a request is made for a mobile unit for Vernon.

by Tom Mark