Centre to direct resources in fight against opioid crisis
Aim is to link drug users with tailored services that could save their lives
The B.C. government has set up a command centre to co-ordinate responses to the overdose crisis in hopes of helping people tap into services that could save their lives.
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy says staff at the overdose emergency response centre at Vancouver General Hospital will work with five new regional response and community action teams to deliver tailored services.
Darcy says that could mean linking people who end up at emergency departments with overdose prevention sites, setting them up with housing or providing culturally appropriate services for those who are Indigenous.
The minister says she’s working with various mayors to determine what services their communities need, such as distribution of naloxone, a drug that reverses overdoses.
Dr. Patricia Daly, chief medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, will lead the centre and says data will be collected regularly so health experts aren’t waiting for statistics that are released every few months by the coroners service.
John and Jennifer Hedican say they were on their own in trying to get their son Ryan help before he died in April from fentanyllaced heroin and they’re hoping the centre will provide others the resources they didn’t get.
“Ryan asked for help many times before he was poisoned and our whole family experienced the horrendous lack of support this disease receives,’’ John Hedican told the news conference.
Hedican said their son needed intervention numerous times as he went into recovery and relapsed, but it was critical in January 2016 when he needed housing after the family could no longer deal with his substance use in their home.
Ryan Hedican was found unresponsive during a lunch break after returning to work as an electrician, Hedican said of his son, adding the stigma against people who use illicit drugs was another issue the family had to battle.
The Canadian Press