‘EVERYDAY CRISIS’
Overdoses no longer spike on Welfare Wednesday: ‘Every other day is just as busy’
With new numbers that show overdose deaths remain high in Vancouver, Mayor Gregor Robertson is pleading for the provincial government to pump recently acquired federal money into drug substitution therapy.
According to figures released by the city Thursday, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services reported 92 overdose calls between March 6 and 13 and police reported 12 suspected overdose deaths. While this was a drop from the week prior, during which 174 calls and 14 suspected overdose deaths were reported, the city said it is above the historical average.
Despite the perception that overdoses spike when income-assistance cheques are issued, the numbers show “overdoses are happening all the time and are very challenging to predict,” the release said.
Vancouver Fire Department Capt. Jonathan Gormick said while there have been fluctuations in the numbers, the results don’t offer much hope.
“We used to see huge spikes on income assistance Wednesdays and the day or two after … but now when we look at the numbers, that spike is diminished. And it’s not that the spike has gone down, it’s because every other day is just as busy,” Gormick said.
He said the urgency and frequency of the calls leave first responders with very little time to do other tasks such as training, maintenance or even downtime for lunch, let alone adequate rest to counter the emotional toll of handling overdoses and deaths day in and out.
“It’s literally every day now,” Gormick said. “It’s an everyday crisis.”
Robertson called the impact of fentanyl-related deaths on Vancouver families “truly heartbreaking” and said the B.C. government needs to spend $10 million it received from the federal health minister on treatments such as opioid-substitution therapy.
“Those funds should be used to broaden access to clean prescription drugs and substitution therapy, and expand treatment-on-demand services to save lives and help people recover from substance use,” he said in the release.
The majority of calls came from the Downtown Eastside, but cases outside the downtown area “remained significant,” the city release said.
“It’s devastating in this community, but it’s hitting everywhere else in the province and starting to work its way across the country,” Gormick said.
He said there are overdose deaths now being recorded in other areas of the city, and the ratio of overdoses to deaths is much closer outside of the Downtown Eastside.
“That’s tragic because it’s people who don’t have access to naloxone for one reason or another,” he said, adding that those deaths are happening in communities where services are not as accessible or visible as in the Downtown Eastside.
Vancouver police reported four overdoses in a single day on Sunday. However, toxicology reports aren’t complete and death numbers must be confirmed by coroners.
The city said it also received a report from Health Canada of high levels of carfentanil, with lab data showing four to six per cent of drugs tested positive for carfentanil and other deadly synthetic opioids this month, up from one to two per cent in January.
In April last year, provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall declared a public health emergency in response to a spike in overdoses and deaths, most of them related to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid being cut into street drugs of all kinds.
Of the 922 people who died of an illicit-drug overdose in B.C. in 2016, 215 were in Vancouver, according to the B.C. Coroners Service. Vancouver Coastal Health had the highest rate of illicit-drug overdose deaths among all health authorities, at 21.6 deaths per 100,000 people.
VCH said that between Jan. 1 and Feb. 18, there were 1,008 illicit or unknown drug overdoses in its emergency departments. Opioids — mostly heroin — accounted for a 32 per cent of the visits. Unknown substances caused 38 per cent of visits.
In December, five overdose prevention sites and a mobile medical unit were opened in Vancouver. On Wednesday, St. Paul’s Hospital announced that a new service called the Hub will open there this spring to bolster care for people in the midst of mental-health and substance-use crises.