By Kate Bouey

Increase in overdoses, violence against women due to COVID: Hope Outreach

Jul 16, 2020 | 5:00 AM

The founder of an Okanagan outreach program says the number of illicit drug overdoses in the region remains high.

Not all overdoses lead to death but Angie Lohr of Hope Outreach says they have spiked since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“If they came into recovery just before COVID, you know, without any counsellors, without any treatment facilities that were taking anybody, yeah, we’ve seen a lot of people fall,” Lohr told Vernon Matters.

Such is the concern that Lohr says some agencies are handing out large quantities of naloxone which can reverse the effects of an overdose.

Vernon Matters has reached out to Interior Health for comment.

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The BC Coroners Service is expected to release the monthly tally of illicit overdose deaths today.

Lohr says violence against women, especially those with no fixed address, has also increased in Vernon and Kelowna.

“We’re hearing women really hopeless, in a state, you know, COVID’s fault. Their counsellors, everyone has been cut off services,” she said.

Lohr praised Vernon RCMP for their compassionate policing and ability to listen and act on the complaints of the street populace.

“Vernon has great RCMP officers who help the community,” she said.

Hope Outreach provides nighttime outreach seven days a week for the women of Kelowna and Vernon who are homeless, living in addiction, exploited and are sex workers.

Lohr says volunteers have had trouble in the past few months finding some of their regular clients because “everything is so spread out.”

She says some are in shelters, some are camping and some have been put up in hotels.

There are 35 Hope Outreach volunteers in Vernon with many back on the street to help despite the pandemic, Lohr said.

Earlier this week, United Way Southern Interior BC announced grants for a handful of charities dealing with COVID-19.

United Way partnered with Interior Savings Credit Union, the Community Foundations of the North and South Okanagan, and Valley First, a division of First West Credit Union, to provide funding for six recipients of the Sustainable Recovery grant.

They include: