Pubdate: Sat, 20 Aug 2016
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Page: A10
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Tiffany Crawford
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Insite

SAFE INJECTION SITE EXPANDS HOURS ON CHEQUE WEEK

Around-The-Clock Service Offered in Bid to Curb City's Overdose Crisis

Health officials will offer around-the-clock service on certain days 
at Vancouver's safe injection site in response to the city's overdose crisis.

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority said Friday it is launching a 
pilot project to keep Insite open 24 hours a day on Wednesday, 
Thursday and Friday during the weeks that social assistance cheques 
are distributed.

The project will begin Aug. 24-26, and continue for up to six months. 
At that time, health officials will evaluate whether the extended 
hours are having any effect.

Dr. Ron Joe, associate medical director of substance use services at 
Vancouver Coastal, says they are seeing a "dramatic increase" in the 
number of people overdosing at Insite and at hospital emergency 
departments during welfare cheque week.

 From January to May, health officials saw an 80-per-cent increase in 
emergency department visits for opioid-related overdoses during 
welfare cheque distribution week, compared to the previous week, 
according to VCH.

VCH also said that Insite saw a 50-per-cent increase in overdoses 
during the same period, specifically, on the Wednesday, Thursday and 
Friday of cheque week.

None of those who overdosed at Insite died.

"If people are going to use illicit substances, it is better that 
they do so in a supervised environment," said Joe, in a statement.

On Thursday, the B.C. Coroner's Service said there were 433 deaths 
recorded between Jan. 1 and July 31, a nearly 75 per cent increase 
compared with the same period in 2015, and many of them were linked 
to the deadly opioid fentanyl. The coroner said the number of deaths 
where fentanyl was detected leaped to 238, a 250-per-cent increase 
over the same period last year.

Fentanyl overdoses were classified as a public health emergency in April.

- - With a file from The Canadian Press
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