As British Columbia continues to be gripped by a drug overdose crisis, many Okanagan support workers are now finding themselves responding to overdoses.
It’s a grim task that’s taking an emotional toll.
Dealing with overdoses is not typically part of an executive director’s job description. However, that’s exactly what Lisa Anderson has found herself doing in her job at Vernon’s Upper Room Mission.
“I have responded to eight overdoses, and it is getting harder and harder,” Anderson said.
“It is hard to see it and see them the next day, dealing with all of the emotions that you have, of anger and hurt and frustration and love. It’s been a stressful summer.”
The Upper Room Mission isn’t alone. Vernon’s John Howard Society said they’ve dealt with six overdoses at their Vernon shelters in the past six months.
“People who work in shelters are typically very kind-hearted people that really do care, so as they build relationships, it can be devastating when someone that you’ve known for a long time is going through such a hard period in their lives,” said the society’s co-executive director Kelly Fehr.
Both organizations are taking steps to support their staff.
“We do debriefing, which is awesome, but I really feel that it is happening so often that we need more of a support system to help us work through these traumatic events,” Anderson said.
New Mobile Response Team providing support
Now the province has set up a Mobile Response Team to help these essential workers better cope.
“It’s an accumulation of events that are unprecedented, so they need some help helping each other,” said Provincial Mobile Response Team lead Carolyn Sinclair.
The support they provide can take the shape of one-on-one meetings, educational events or responding after an overdose death.
“It could be that a critical incident like that has happened and they can call us,” Sinclair said. “We would deploy a team to be able to respond to those helpers and help them maybe do a critical incident debrief, or maybe just give them some tools and education around how to help themselves cope.
“Our goal would be to make sure that all of the frontline workers and helpers are given tools to help themselves.”
The service is now being rolled out in the Interior. Anyone wishing to access the team’s support can email (no colon) mrt@phsa.ca.
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