Since 2011, after a spike of heroin-related deaths in Vancouver, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) started weekly monitoring of overdoses at emergency departments (ED) and Insite, Vancouver's supervised consumption site, to support local and provincial harm reduction activities.
In April 2016, BC's Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Perry Kendall declared a public health emergency under the Public Health Act due to a significant increase in drug-related overdoses and deaths in British Columbia. In response to the declaration, a series of harm reduction activities were implemented in the VCH region, including the creation of overdose prevention sites (OPSs) in highly affected areas. Enhanced epidemiology and surveillance programs were implemented at VCH to monitor and evaluate the additional harm reduction interventions.
These updates summarize overdose visits in 9 EDs, and at supervised consumption services and overdose prevention sites within the VCH region.