The province says Kelowna and Vernon are among the B.C. cities “hardest hit by the overdose crisis” and it plans to fund what it calls community action teams to tackle the problem.
Those teams will work in 18 B.C. areas including the two Okanagan cities. In some cases existing working groups will take on the role while in other communities new stakeholder groups will be created.
The province said the teams will “help identify the most-effective overdose prevention interventions for their individual communities.”
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“Each community action team will play a crucial role in targeting resources where they are needed most on the ground in their communities. This is critical to saving lives and connecting people to treatment and recovery,” said B.C. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Judy Darcy, in a media release.
The province said priorities for the community action teams will include expanding harm-reduction services, making naloxone more available, expanding services to check for unsafe drugs and helping people at risk of overdose with treatment and housing.
There were 75 illicit drug overdose deaths in Kelowna last year. Province-wide, 1,422 people died after overdosing on illicit drugs.
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