Overdose deaths dip in the Okanagan for the first time in months

The Okanagan Valley is front and centre in B.C.’s overdose crisis.

Of the 450 emergency room overdoses reported in the Interior Health Region between Jun. 1, 2016 and Jan. 15, 2017, more than half occurred in the Okanagan.

Since the province declared a state of emergency last April because of the overdose crisis, it estimates it’s spent more than $43 million trying to conquer it.

In Kelowna there is one overdose prevention site and Interior Health has applied for a mobile supervised consumption service.

Emergency services, shelters and outreach agencies have been stocked with naloxone overdose kits and volunteer groups like HOPE Outreach are handing out the kits and training people how to use them at the street level.

“The once a week we go out we’re handing out 16 to 20 kits,” Angie Lohr with HOPE Outreach said. “Either new or replacement kits.”

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Kelowna sits behind Vancouver and Surrey as the top three cities for fatal overdoses in January. There were 47 overdose deaths in Kelowna in 2016, compared to 19 in 2015 and 12 in 2014. Vernon and Kamloops also saw large year-over-year spikes.

But new statistics released by the BC Coroners Service do show one ray of hope.

Overdose death rates in the Interior have been rising consistently since August of 2016, but this past January, they actually dropped from 30 to 18 month-over-month.

READ MORE: B.C. overdose toll at 116 for January

“I was hoping, and I think all of us involved…were hoping that it would make a difference,” Lohr said.

Still, Lohr is far from ready to declare victory over fentanyl.

She’d like to see more detox facilities, more transitional housing and easier paths to treatment for all addicts in the Okanagan.

While the Interior, Fraser and Northern Health authorities saw declines in the number of overdose deaths in January, Vancouver Coastal Health and Vancouver Island Health Authorities continued to see an increase in numbers.

There were a total of 116 fatal overdoses in January across B.C.