New numbers from Fraser Health are providing an updated snapshot of the effects of the overdose crisis south of the Fraser.
The data, contained in the 2017 Chief Medical Health Officer’s Report, offers an image of the demographic hardest hit by the drug epidemic.
Fraser Health found that 85 per cent of people who die of overdoses in the health region are men, the majority of them between the ages of 30 and 39.
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Drilling deeper into that profile, the authority tracked a group of 90 men who had been admitted to hospital after an overdose, and found that most were, or had been, employed in the building trades, and many had histories of injury and pain management. Eight out of 10 of them had been admitted to the hospital at least once in the previous year.
“A lot of these men are treating pain, opioids are used for the treatment of pain and people get addicted,” said board chair Jim Sinclair.
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Seventy per cent of overdoses tracked by the health authority occurred inside a private residence — a trend that echoes data found by the BC Coroners Service.
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The report also found First Nations people in the region are being disproportionately impacted by the drug crisis. It found they were five times more likely to have an overdose, and three times more likely to die of one.
The report also tracked the alarming rise of fentanyl in the region’s street drugs, attributing just 25 per cent of overdoses in 2014 to the drug, while more than 80 per cent in 2017 were linked to the narcotic.
“I think it is a crisis and society’s going to have to have the courage to face the real answers here,” Sinclair added.
To that end, the report does highlight several actions being taken to target groups at higher risk of overdoses.
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It points to a workshop hosted by the health authority with trades industry employers and unions to try to improve early interventions for men working in trades, and says the authority is also screening with emergency departments to try and identify people at higher risk.
It says the authority is also expanding access to treatments such as Suboxone and methadone, trying to improve access to naloxone in First Nations communities and looking into alternatives options for pain management for people with chronic pain.
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