Overdose deaths cited by leaders
B.C.’S FIRST NATIONS LEADERS SUSPECT HIGH RATE OF OVERDOSE DEATHS
First Nations leaders in British Columbia say they suspect the deadly opioid fentanyl is having a disproportionate impact on their communities but they can’t get the numbers to prove it.
Grand Chief Edward John of the First Nations Summit said he’s been asking the First Nations Health Authority and other provincial authorities for the data since last fall but nothing has yet been delivered.
“I don’t even know how to feel, we need to have that information and we shouldn’t wait to act,” he said.
Over 900 people died in the province from illicit overdoses last year. John said although he doesn’t know what proportion of those who died are indigenous, he knows plenty of families and communities that have fallen victim to the crisis.
“All I hear is the anecdotal information from communities where funerals are taking place,” he said “People are dying needlessly.”
The First Nations Health Authority said it’s working with the BC Coroners Service to develop an approach to collect the data that would identify deceased individuals as aboriginal.
Current data collected by the agencies is based on selfidentification and must first be compared against the B.C. Ministry of Health’s First Nation client file, which includes data from the federal government.
“We want to ensure that any publicly released aboriginal specific data is as accurate as possible,” said Dr. Shannon McDonald, deputy chief medical officer for the First Nations Health Authority, in an email statement.
“Once the data matching is completed and there’s greater confidence in the numbers, it will be available for release,” she said, adding that numbers may not be available for a few weeks at least.
In the meantime, the health authority said it’s addressing the overdose crisis by educating the public about the harmful potential of opioids and distributing naloxone, the overdose-reversing drug.
More than 70 First Nations health centres have received naloxone kits and the health authority said it held over 110 public training sessions on how to use the kits last year.
Despite these efforts to get ahead of the crisis, the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council declared a state of emergency after seeing too many deaths in its communities. The council represents a collection of First Nations bands in the B.C. Interior.
Tribal Chief Wayne Christian said in the days leading up to the declaration in March, five band members were buried in the span of a week.
“Any death is an emergency,” he said. “The grief and loss, compounded by the intergenerational trauma, people just said we have got to do something about this, enough is enough.”