Report calls for supervised drug sites for youth
Two dozen overdose victims in last year were between the ages of 10 and 18
B.C.’s representative for children and youth is urging the provincial government to create harm reduction services for young people, including supervised consumption sites, so that they don’t continue to overdose and die.
Jennifer Charlesworth makes five recommendations in her report on substance use released Thursday. She calls for the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions and the Ministry of Health to provide youth-specific harmreduction services with supervised consumption spaces embedded within other services and supports.
Her report, called “Time to Listen,” comes after a year in which 24 of the 1,452 people who died of an illicit-drug drug overdose in B.C. were between the ages of 10 and 18. She recommends a full spectrum of harm-reduction services for youth by March 31, 2020.
“It is the first time we’ve heard this recommendation, obviously, and we’ll be looking closely at it,” Addictions Minister Judy Darcy said Thursday.
“I think our goal for youth and for everyone living with substanceuse disorder is to try and connect people with treatment and recovery as soon as possible.”
Darcy responded positively to the report and said her ministry wants to ensure that youth suffering from addiction are able to access a wide array of barrier-free services, where there is a focus on prevention and early intervention.
“I totally appreciate that the harm-reduction piece is the piece that will garner the most attention out of this report but the representative spoke to a wide array of services that are needed in order to support youth living with substance-use issues, and that’s really where our focus is as a government,” she said.
Darcy said the ministry is working to rapidly expand its network of Foundry hubs for at-risk youth ages 12 to 24. The seven sites cater to their mental health and substance use issues and help them access counselling and treatment. Four more hubs have been announced.
B.C. has several supervised consumption and overdose-prevention sites where drug users can inject and in some cases snort or ingest substances in the presence of people trained to reverse overdoses.
None cater to youth, however, some will let them in. In the Vancouver Coastal Health region, for example, youth 16 to 19 can use the sites but must agree to be assessed by a nurse who may defer access and instead make referrals to other supports based on their history, education needs and medical and social supports.
But“people maybe polite ly denied admittance” to an overdose prevention site if they are under 16 years old, according to a Vancouver Coastal Health manual describing policies for the sites.
Charlesworth’s report found that focus-group participants saw value in the sites but found them inaccessible due to their age.
Sarah Blyth, Overdose Prevention Society in Vancouver, said only about a dozen youth use her society’s Downtown Eastside trailer each year. Workers at the site have connected youth with Covenant House and other service providers in hopes they will find a different path.
But at the same time, workers at the site don’t want youth to use alone and overdose without a peer to help them or call for help.
“Seeing young people that are using drugs is, I would say, the most challenging thing for workers down here,” she said. “You want every young person to have a great, exciting life with hope.”
It is the first time we’ve heard this recommendation, obviously, and we’ll be looking closely at it.