Interior Health’s mobile overdose prevention unit has arrived in Kelowna.
It’s a motor home fully equipped to assist intravenous drug users in case they overdose.
The program will run Tuesday to Saturday at two locations in the city. Between 12:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. it will be parked in downtown Kelowna, in the parking lot behind Outreach Urban Health. In the evenings it will move to Rutland and will be parked beside the Rutland Community Dialysis Centre on Park Road between 7 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.
Interior Health says the unit cannot be considered a safe injection site until the federal government allows it to be.
“It’s not a safe injection site because we don’t have the Health Canada exemption required to have a supervised consumption service. That means having our staff sitting with the person as they’re using drugs, supporting them and providing education around how to more safely inject,” John Yarschenko with Interior Health said.
Interior Health says staff will be in a separate room in the motor home in case there’s an overdose. Staffing the motor home will cost about $200,000 per year. Kamloops is also getting a similar unit.
For more information on the mobile overdose prevention site, you can visit Interior Health’s website.
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