responding to a public health emergency: the opioid crisis in bc - part 2

PHS Community Services Society Overdose Crisis Response

Christy Sutherland MD CCFP DABAM

Medical Director

Low Barrier Clinic

• We have been offering same-day methadone and burprenorphine starts since 2014

Take home naloxone training.

• Between Aug 2016 – present we have distributed 2500 kits.

Naloxone training in the alley

Photo by Travis Lupick

Clinics in the Alley

Photo by Travis Lupick

Clinic in the alley

Photo by Travis Lupick

Clinic in the Street Market

Photo by Travis Lupick

Naloxone training, flu shots, wound care, methadone, suboxone

Overdose Response Rooms

• Maple Hotel and 412 East Cordova

• Rooms staffed by mental health workers and drug users for observing injections

• Well trained in overdose management

Spikes on Bikes

Injectable Therapy

• Our first person started in September 2016

• Our second started in January 2017

• Now is embedded in our overdose response room – supervised by a nurse sometimes, but also by a mental health worker

Training addiction medicine nurses

Training addiction medicine physicians

• Clinics in the New Fountain Shelter in the evenings

• Overdose training and supplies for staff – average of 300 vials of narcan per week

• Over 1400 overdose interventions in our hotels in 2016

• Clinic peer line for outreach, follow up, and connecting people to treatment

Thinking about leadership