Update: Island Health has clarified the number of people who used the overdose-prevention site in its first week, saying that it recorded 84 people coming through the site, some using the room several times, for a total of more than 200 visits.
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Victoria’s first public overdose-prevention site had more than 200 visits from 84 people in its first week.
The temporary drug-use site, in a bright orange shipping container in the courtyard of Our Place Society, 919 Pandora Ave., opened Dec. 20.
Traffic has been “higher than we anticipated for starting off,” said Don Evans of Our Place.
“We thought it would take some time before people got comfortable going in, because most people are finding a quiet, private place to use, so to have them come into a public place is certainly new for people in this city.”
Evans said Wednesday that 268 people had visited the site since it opened. Island Health clarified on Thursday, saying it had recorded 84 people coming through the site, some using the room several times, for a total of more than 200 visits.
A second site, at 844 Johnson St., is open only to residents of the building, former campers from Victoria’s dismantled tent city.
A record number of people have died from illicit drug overdoses in B.C. this year — 755 between January and the end of November, an increase of more than 70 per cent from the same period last year, according to the B.C. Coroners Service.
Sixty overdose deaths have been recorded in Victoria, trailing only Vancouver at 164 and Surrey at 92. Nanaimo has had 25 deaths.
On Dec. 12, British Columbia enacted a ministerial order to support the creation of temporary overdose-prevention sites — an emergency response until official supervised-consumption sites, with attached health and social services, are approved by Health Canada.
The sites offer a hygienic environment where people use their own drugs under the supervision of medical staff. They aim to reduce the number of overdose deaths, connect people with health-care services and reduce public drug use and the number of discarded needles.
Having a paramedic on site has helped Our Place’s outreach workers, who were having to respond to overdoses, and has also allowed staff to build relationships with people using drugs, Evans said. “We were so focused on saving people’s lives we hadn’t realized … there’s a real opportunity for us to engage and help people, whatever their needs are.”
The site also helps to reduce the shame and judgment some people feel about their addiction, and ensures they don’t use drugs alone, he said.
The Vancouver Island Health Authority has the highest drug-overdose rate among B.C.’s health regions, with 19.7 deaths per 100,000 people from January to November — a 153 per cent increase over last year.
Island Health hopes to open three long-term supervised-consumption sites with related health and social services at Our Place, at a residence at 844 Johnson St. and at 2920 Bridge St. near the Rock Bay Landing shelter.
It has committed to submitting applications for two of the three sites — Johnson Street and Pandora Avenue — to Health Canada by the end of this month.
