Interior Health leader encourages overdose awareness

Aug 30, 2022 | 4:25 PM

Wednesday is Overdose Awareness Day, and the president and CEO of Interior Health is encouraging people to learn more about the increasing number of drug toxicity deaths.

Susan Brown said in an op-ed that toxic drugs are taking the lives of British Columbians and creating challenges to first responders and care providers.

International Overdose Awareness Day is held on Aug. 31 to raise awareness and reduce the stigma associated with substance use and drug-related death, and Brown said it is an important day to recognize the loss and grief felt in communities throughout the Interior and around the world.

“This opportunity to build awareness is more important than ever,” wrote Brown.

According to the latest report from the BC Coroner’s Service, within Interior Health during the first five months of 2022 alone, there were 149 drug toxicity deaths.

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“The rising numbers correspond to an increasingly poisonous street drug supply. The presence of fentanyl is now commonplace and made even more dangerous with the addition of tranquilizers and other complicating substances,” said Brown.

The CEO noted there have been some improvements to the system, including balancing crisis response with prevention.

In the past two years, there have been investments in local substance use services including bed-based in-patient and community-based outpatient options, while prescribed safe supply has been introduced in Vernon, Kelowna, Kamloops, and Penticton. Interior Health is also working on expanding the safe supply clinics to other communities in the region.

There are also 72 locations in the Interior offering drug testing, and work to expand these services in the Interior is ongoing.

“Life-saving overdose prevention and supervised consumption services continue to play an important role in not only keeping people alive, but connecting them to support and treatment,” said Brown in her written statement.

“Within Interior Health, our substance use and harm reduction teams are increasingly joined by “peers” – people with lived and living experience who provide guidance in program planning and implementation. I thank them for sharing their wisdom.”

Brown encourages people to wear purple wristbands Wednesday to mark International Overdose Awareness Day.

There will also be several community events held throughout the Interior to mark the day, including:

A free drop-in event at the Museum and Archives of Vernon at 5 p.m. The event will have an opening ceremony followed by a community meal and the screening of the award winning film Kimmapiiyiptssini: The Meaning of Empathy. Space is limited to first-come first-serve.
An open mic event to honour Indigenous people lost to overdoses on the unceded ancestral territory of the Syilx Okanagan people and Westbank First Nation at Kelowna’s Kerry Park from 4 to 10 p.m.
Live music, Naloxone training, a drug testing demonstration, videos and a candlelight vigil from 7 to 10 p.m. at Kerry Park in Kelowna.
Naloxone training, drug checking, information booths, Indigenous ceremonies and a luminary memorial at Gyro Park in Penticton from 2 to 9 p.m.

The events are being held in partnership with Moms Stop the Harm, a network of Canadian families impacted by substance-use-related deaths that advocates for changes in drug policies, provide peer support for grieving families, and assist people whose loved ones have or do use drugs.

by Liam Verster

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