Fraser Health’s new overdose prevention site in Maple Ridge is seeing much use, with numbers growing sharply during the first few months of operation.
A customized van with an outdoor covered area located on Ridge Meadows Hospital grounds, just off of Lougheed Highway, has seen more than 180 clients since it opened its doors on Dec. 18.
In fact, the number of drug users using the site has risen dramatically from 11 during the last couple of weeks in December, to 28 in January, and then five times as many people in February which saw 141 people using the site.
Dr. Cheryl Young, Fraser Health medical health officer, said the amount of clients using the site speaks to the needs of the population who use substances in Maple Ridge.
“It speaks to how we’ve had 180 clients who want this safer place to use their substances and do so in a supervised way,” she said.
Fraser Health allocated around $450,000 to RainCity Housing, whom they have partnered with to run the operation for the first year of the mobile Ridge Meadows Overdose Prevention Site. The funding included startup costs, staffing, operational costs, equipment and supplies.
In addition to providing a safe environment for people to have their substance use witnessed, staff can help clients navigate detox, withdrawal management and treatment options if they wish. They can also connect clients to Fraser Health’s Overdose Outreach Teams and Integrated Homelessness Action Response Teams. Harm reduction supplies including Take Home Naloxone Kits and training on how to use them are also available.
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Fentanyl test strips and harm reduction supplies are available at the new overdose prevention site and the Public Health Unit in Maple Ridge. The strips are small pieces of paper that can detect the presence of fentanyl in different kinds of drugs.
To date, there have been no overdoses at the Maple Ridge site.
Young is happy with the location of the site and said Fraser Health would be willing to work with their city partners in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows to determine multiple suitable locations for future sites.
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“I would like to see more services across the region available to people who use substances, more overdose prevention sites opening in our region and beyond because this is a real crisis,” she said, noting that 53 people in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows lost their lives last year due to illicit drug use.
More than 19,000 people used one of the 14 overdose prevention sites, and one supervised consumption site in the Fraser Health region in December alone.
According to Fraser Health, the difference between the two are supervised consumption sites operate under an exemption from Health Canada, while overdose prevention sites came into being after the public health emergency was declared across the province 2016 and don’t have the same federal oversight.
The Ridge Meadows Mobile Overdose Prevention Site is currently open from 9:30-4:30 p.m. daily at 11666 Laity St., Maple Ridge.
However, hours may be extended in the coming weeks.
