Pubdate: Thu, 05 Jan 2017
Source: Now, The (Surrey, CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact:  http://www.thenownewspaper.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1462
Author: Michael Marchbank (Michael Marchbank is the president and CEO of
Fraser Health.)

OUR AGGRESSIVE OVERDOSE STRATEGY IS PRODUCING RESULTS

In 2016, British Columbians faced the public health emergency that is the
overdose crisis. As of Nov. 30th, 755 people in our province died in 2016
due to an overdose - 259 of those deaths occurring in the Fraser Health
region.

That's 259 sons, daughters, partners and friends who have lost their lives
to an issue that has impacted our society at all levels.

In our region of 1.8 million people, the overdose crisis has touched all
of our communities. How does a health authority manage something like
this? We mobilized to develop and execute an aggressive overdose strategy,
tackling the problem with multiple approaches, including prevention, harm
reduction and treatment.

We combined our efforts in our communities and hospitals. Across our
region, 56 sites - including all of our emergency departments and public
health units - are now equipped to distribute take-home naloxone. By the
end of October, we distributed more than 2,300 kits, helping to save
countless lives. We also developed and implemented a safe prescription
policy for opioid-based medications in all emergency departments across
the region.

We have held 17 community forums and naloxone training events in
partnership with our municipalities, schools and the RCMP to prevent
overdoses from occurring and to prepare people in case they do.

We've launched a multi-phased public education campaign targeting all
people who use substances and we've produced these materials in ways that
can be easily shared by schools, media outlets and the public.

In October, we partnered with RainCity Housing and Support Society to
develop a regional harm reduction strategy that, among other things, will
connect the most vulnerable patients to health and social services and
find ways to reduce inappropriately discarded needles in our communities.

We recently announced that we're proposing two sites for supervised
consumption services in Surrey, where we've seen the highest number of
overdose deaths. We're working with the surrounding neighbourhoods and
municipal partners to ensure that we produce measureable, positive
results.

We know many people with opioid substance use disorders are seeking
support to address their addiction and there are often questions as to the
most appropriate treatment. Opioid substitution treatment (the
prescription of medications such as suboxone and methadone) is the most
effective treatment in reducing use of opioids, improving physical health
and reducing death rates.

We're doubling capacity for opioid substitution treatment at our two sites
in Surrey, and we're enhancing these services in Abbotsford and Maple
Ridge.

Over the past 18 months, we've opened dozens of substance use treatment
beds in our region, and we're on track to open another 100 beds in 2017.
We are also working with our partners to ensure that access to opioid
substitution treatment is part of the continuum of care in these
residential substance use disorder services.

While our efforts have produced results in our communities, there is more
to be done. The public health emergency has impacted us all, and Fraser
Health is committed to being at the forefront of creating positive change.
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