Overdose Emergency Response Centre set up in B.C. to combat overdose deaths
VANCOUVER — British Columbia has established a command centre to provide a co-ordinated response to the overdose crisis, using expertise from some of the public health experts who worked to stem the spread of HIV in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy told a new conference Friday that staff at the Overdose Emergency Response Centre at Vancouver General Hospital will work with five new regional response teams and community action teams to deliver tailored services.
She said 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 and are likely to fatally overdose at three times the rate of others.
The minister said she is working with various mayors to determine what services their communities need, such as distribution of naloxone, a drug that reverses overdoses.