More sites aimed at preventing drug overdoses open around the province

More overdose prevention sites are opening around British Columbia as health officials try to contain an overdose crisis.

Vancouver Coastal Health said Friday it has opened its fifth site in a modified first aid trailer in the Downtown Eastside, replacing a pop-up tent that had been operating since September.

Sarah Blyth, a former mental-health worker, said she launched the unsanctioned facility because she couldn’t stand by and watch as people overdosed.

“We are grateful for a warm, dry place, both for our volunteers and clients,” Blyth said in a news release about the small trailer set up in the neighbourhood, where six people died in one day earlier this month.

Teams of trained staff at the five Vancouver sites are providing people who use illicit drugs with a safe space to be monitored while they take their drugs. Staff are trained in overdose response.

Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, Vancouver Coastal Health’s medical health officer, says the staff and volunteers at the prevention sites are saving lives.

“We want to make sure we put overdose response and treatment services where people need them.”

To date, no one has died at the overdose prevention sites, he said.

Two overdose prevention sites operated by a local social-services organization have opened in Kamloops and the executive director of the group said about 100 people a day already use the facilities.

The B.C. government declared a public-health emergency in April as illicit drug overdoses soared.

There were 755 overdose deaths in B.C. in the first 11 months of the year, a 70-per-cent increase over the same period last year.