Front-line workers for people with addictions in Kamloops are calling for better supports for recovery, as the city has now reached a record death toll from overdoses.
Fifty people in Kamloops have died from an overdose this year, making up nearly one-quarter of the 216 lives lost from overdose across the Interior Health region.
The executive director of ASK Wellness in Kamloops, Bob Hughes, says his staff have noted the frequency of overdoses in their day-to-day operations.
“We’ve heard, in one day alone we lost two people who we were aware. One was out on the street, and the other was in a residence. So I think this confirms our worst fears, which we’re seeing everyday of more and more drug overdoses from the toxic drug supply.”
Speaking to Kamloops city council last month, the head of VisionQuest, an abstinence-based rehab centre near Logan Lake, says there’s not enough recovery options in the province.
“The COVID-19 crisis has increased the overdose and homelessness crisis; lack of money available in terms of people losing their jobs, and then for those with addictions, a sudden availability of money they’re just simply not used to having,” executive director Megan Worley says.
“That has increased the overdoses. The cost of living is so high now that most people just can’t even afford even to get proper housing. It leads to depression, it leads to addiction, it leads to homelessness. There’s a huge gap between the middle class and the lower-income class. It’s massive.”
Worley says harm reduction is important for keeping people alive who overdose, but she says most people will not get better unless there’s more recovery beds and more programs to assist in recovery.
“They’re going to keep using drugs, they’re going to keep using social housing, they’re going to keep committing crimes. Because they have nowhere else to go. Nowhere.”
And with a new Minister of Mental Health and Addictions set to be named tomorrow, when the provincial cabinet is unveiled in the BC Legislature, Hughes says within the next year, we need new investments for recovery beds and programs that help get people off drugs.
“I’m really hopeful that for Kamloops, we do receive investments from the province for recovery programs that are for people to get well from their addictions. We’ve got a very strong component of supportive housing, low-barrier housing, and now what we need to see is investments into providing recovery-orientated housing and programs.”
Hughes says we’re at a “critical place in our policies,” and says the province needs to double investments into treatment.
