New supervised injection service opens in Vancouver

A new supervised injection site opens its doors on Friday in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

The drop-in site will be known as ‘Powell Street Getaway,’ and is located at 528 Powell Street. It will be open from 8am to 11pm daily.

LISTEN: Dr. Patricia Daly of VCH on CKNW:

Speaking on CKNW’s The Jon McComb Show, Vancouver Coastal Health’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patricia Daly said the site has a history of helping people with mental health and substance use challenges.

“This location has actually provided services to the community since 1993. It will provide the much-needed additional supervised injection services to the community.”

Powell Street Getaway is funded by VCH and operated by the Lookout Emergency Aid Society and offers clients vocational training, nutrition and harm reduction, and access to psychosocial rehabilitation programs.

“There is a tremendous need. We know the service will be well-used and the evidence is clear that it will prevent death,” said Daly.

VCH’s new supervised injection service supports the work of the Joint Task Force on Overdose Response established in 2016.

However, this is not just a Vancouver problem – Daly says it’s an issue across the province.

“The rate of overdose deaths is high in communities in the North, in the Interior, Vancouver Island, even in the city of Vancouver. We are seeing deaths in all neighbourhoods.”

Daly believes that B.C. can reverse the opioid overdoses with Naloxone under observance at safe injection sites and that is why there have been no deaths at the Insite or Dr. Peter Centre locations since they were established.

As part of the of the actions taken to combat the crisis, partners across the health system continue to expand access to naloxone and opioid addiction medications and treatments, open more overdose prevention sites, work with Health Canada on approvals to open additional supervised consumption sites and improve the system of substance use services.