‘You have to encourage people to be open-minded’: Pilot project saving lives in Vernon

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Bluesky
• Share on X
• Copy Link

The man drinks it back and places the empty cup back on the counter when he is done.

Charger rollout

Phased approach planned for EV chargers at Vernon ALC

Apr 24, 2026

Secondary Dwellings

Coldstream considering more housing on agricultural lands

Apr 24, 2026

Wildfire Risks

Okanagan's Fire Danger Rating already up to Moderate

Apr 23, 2026

Again, he tips his hat forward.

“See you tomorrow,” he says with a smile.

The whole encounter lasted just a few minutes and seemed so innocuous that you half expected the man to pull out a Werther’s Original from his pocket as a treat for Cunningham.

Smiling herself, Cunningham points to the man, who is now beyond earshot.

“He sometimes brings popsicles for my kids,” she says of their relationship.

“One day he missed me,” she says of the older man. “I called and left a message for him saying that if he was still around town to call me on my on-call number. He did and met me back at the pharmacy at 4 o’clock, so he didn’t miss his dose.”

For people who are addicted to opioids, like the well-dressed older man, when you take those opioids away the results can be very uncomfortable.

Withdrawal symptoms can be painful and are often accompanied by an insatiable urge to use opioids again.

It creates a cycle that can be difficult to break free from without help — help like methadone, a form of Opioid Agonist Therapy (OAT) treatment.

OAT treatment are medications prescribed to people who have an addiction to opiates; whether that is heroin, fentanyl, morphine, hydromorphone or oxycodone.

Methadone is probably one of the most well-known medications used in OAT treatment but there are other medications like Suboxone and Kadian. Suboxone is also known by its generic name Buprenorphine/naloxone and is considered the first line of treatment.

“When you use OAT Treatment, in whatever form, the opiate receptors are satisfied by the drug, it provides for a very stable control of withdrawal symptoms,” Cunningham says. “It is replacing one drug for another, but you are replacing one drug for a safer drug. A safer drug that allows for more stability. And a safer drug that has less risk of harm in terms of how it is administered and how it is accessed.”

According to the most recent BC Coroners Service report into the Illicit drug toxicity deaths in B.C., from Jan. 2009 to Aug. 2019, more than 590 people in the Okanagan alone died from illicit drug overdoses.

The overwhelming majority of those deaths were attributed to an illicit drug supply contaminated with fentanyl and the other toxic elements.

Most OAT treatment medications like methadone are daily witness medications, which means they must be taken in front of a pharmacist or another health care professional unless otherwise prescribed by a physician.

And, like in the case of the man who stops in daily at the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy, many people prescribed OAT treatment can make it to a health professional’s location for their medication. However, due to any number of barriers, many other people who use opioids cannot.

This past June, the BC Centre for Disease Control released a study on Identifying Barriers of Access and Retention in Opioid Agonist Treatment in British Columbia.

The 10-year study looked at opioid users in Vancouver.

Respondents in the study stated two of the three main reasons for ‘treatment failure’ were challenges meeting program requirements, access to treatment, and treatment concerns.

These findings suggest that there is a need for new approaches to improve engagement in care for people who use opiates.

Recently, Interior Health approached pharmacies in the Greater Vernon area with an idea for a pilot program that would, in theory, eliminate some of those barriers and fill in some service gaps to people prescribed OAT treatment.

The pilot program would see pharmacies team up with local social service agencies, like shelters, to identify clients of the agency who use opiates and have been prescribed OAT treatment.

Pharmacists would then meet daily with these identified clients to provide their OAT medications.

The Medicine Shoppe was the first pharmacy willing to give this idea a try.

Right now, the location will deliver any form of OAT treatment prescribed for the patient that the clinic deems appropriate.

The delivery of these kinds of medications can only happen in circumstances where there are barriers to clients coming to the pharmacy.

Some pharmacies expressed concerns about logistics as well as the safety of their pharmacists.

Cunningham said so far, such issues have not materialized for her or her staff members.

It is believed the benefits of this program will enable people to start OAT treatment who might not have otherwise started. It also allows further progress for participants.

“We have seen a significant improvement in individuals who have been offered this service,” explains Jennifer Glen, Team Lead for Overdose Prevention Services for Interior Health in the North Okanagan. “We have been able to remove barriers for the individual, and in doing so, we have been able to provide them with this medication resulting in a significant improvement in their overall wellbeing.”

According to Glen, several of the individuals who have been offered this option are for the first time able to maintain an appropriate dosage.

“The importance of the impact of this cannot be underestimated,” Glen says.

“That is where we are having a benefit and there is evidence to show OAT treatment results in improved outcomes for people. It reduces drug use. It reduces harm and it absolutely reduces death. We are just trying to keep people on the program to get them to a stable point where they are potentially using less,” Cunningham adds.

Jason and Rachel are both clients of the Medicine Shoppe and are involved in the pilot program. Both are addicted to opiates and have experienced homelessness.

To help protect their identity, Vernon Matters is only publishing their first names.

Both have been using some form of OAT treatment for roughly two years. They say they know all too well the barriers one faces when homeless and trying to maintain OAT treatment.

“I have only missed one dose since I started five months ago,” Jason says. “Before I would miss two, four, six, eight a month for many reasons. You’re moving from place to place just to feel secure and to find shelter and food. When you are homeless and nowhere to be, you are in survival mode.”

“I don’t miss a dose,” Rachel says. “She (Cunningham) understands that we are trying to better ourselves and this is helping. She doesn’t cut us down or make us feel worse about ourselves. She is working with you to increase your chances of success.”

Missing doses can, and often does result in relapse or potentially treatment failure, which sometimes results in starting over, or not restarting at all.

“Sometimes we have to get people from where they are to where they want to be,” Cunningham says. “I mark success by any improvement over yesterday. So, if we are seeing people who are accessing treatment who weren’t previously, that is a success. If they fall and start again, that is a success. If people are connected with resources, no matter if it is the first or the third time, and a connection is actually provided with any sort of change or actionable item, that is a success. Because this is going to be a problem that is going to take a long time to see actual sweeping changes. So, those small wins are really critical.”

However, Cunningham, herself, even admits it can be a bit of a back and forth process.

“One step forward, two steps back sometimes,” she says. “But, each time we are giving people a greater opportunity to be successful. We are giving them more of an opportunity to stay on the program and not miss doses.”

From the well-dressed older man who makes his daily stops in the Medicine Shoppe to others like Jason and Rachel who face barriers, people who access OAT treatment range from people who are experiencing homelessness to the blue and white-collar workers who have a place to call home.

The people who access the OAT treatment come from all socio-economic backgrounds.

“Evidence suggests that OAT increases entry into substance use treatment, improves the ability to follow through with medical treatment, decreases death from overdose, decreases illicit opioid use and decreases risky behaviour that can lead to transmission of STI’s,” Glen says. “OAT is proven to be an effective and essential tool.”

According to the BC Coroners Service report, illicit drug overdose deaths are decreasing. Harm reduction services like OAT treatment and overdose prevention sites are reasons cited for the decrease. It is agreed, by many, that this battle is far from over and more can still be done.

“You have to encourage people to be open-minded,” Cunningham says. “People have to look at this for what it is now and not what they think it is or what it might have been in the past. We have to look at it and ask, what are we dealing with? Look at the issues, and there are several.

“We can’t take a single model from anywhere and apply it, but what we can do is look at places and communities and programs that have been successful and take elements of that might work in our community as well.”