“For five years, I was out on the streets homeless, and I struggled coming to the hospital because I never had anywhere to use,” said Comox Valley resident Heather Edward, who has been sober for eight months.
“I procrastinated coming to the hospital for infections and stuff because I was scared that I was going to withdraw or I would leave refusing care. If I got the ambulance called on me for overdosing, I would refuse care because I would potentially withdraw in the hospital and, I couldn’t do that.”
Edward was speaking at the launch of an unsanctioned pop up overdose prevention site outside of the North Island Hospital Comox Valley. It was organized by Doctors for Safer Drug Policy, a group of Vancouver Island physicians who are calling for overdose prevention sites at island hospitals. Overdose prevention sites are places where people can use substances under the supervision of staff trained to monitor for signs of overdose, and provide medical intervention if necessary.
Dr. Eva Hemmerich, who runs The Village clinic in Courtenay says that this kind of intervention reduces infectious diseases and costs to the healthcare system.
“The people we deal with and work with are – it’s heartbreaking – they’re so stigmatized,” she said.
“We have to talk them into coming to hospital. And then we get heavy hearted, because then we see they left against medical advice and we know it’s because they had to use their medicine or their substance, to even to function.”
Hemmerich says that with benzodiazepines entering the drug supply, the risks of withdrawal have increased.
“When you go into benzo withdrawal, you risk having seizures and even dying. So people cannot just stop using their substances,” she said. “Opioids, they will feel horrible, but they can survive it. But adding the benzos is dangerous. They can die from it.”
People First Radio spoke with a number of people attending the launch of the site.
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