With 24 overdose deaths in Kamloops as of the end of August this year, the Executive Director of Ask Wellness says there are a few factors that can be attributed.

Bob Hughes says this has been an unrelenting public health emergency that has impacted every socioeconomic group in the province and in our community. “It is, I think, a reflection of the level of commitment and determination from the province of BC and from our Health Authority to provide resources to have some inroads in this.” He says we “seen the impact of naloxone has been absolutely transformative in saving peoples lives, to having nurses doing outreach services and engaging people, to our supervised consumption service that people may have criticized, but it’s been a life saver.”

Hughes says with more lives being saved, it’s time to focus more on prevention. “Now that we, I think, have made the beginnings of some significant change for the positive with the overdose crisis, now is the time to start talking about recovery options and how we treat the addiction that these people have been living with for some time and look at preventative steps. We’re starting to save their lives and seeing the downward trend in terms of fatalities, now is the time to start to talk about recovery options.” He used a hospital analogy saying it’s time to move away from the life saving model. “We’ve done the triage in the ER and now we need to do the major surgery and see real change.”