Emergency

Resource

Overdose surveillance

Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) routinely monitors and reports on the unregulated drug poisoning emergency with the goal of supporting local and provincial harm reduction activities. Overdoses are monitored at emergency departments, overdose prevention sites, and supervised consumption sites.

In April 2016, BC's Provincial Health Officer declared a public health emergency under the Public Health Act due to a significant increase in drug-related overdoses and deaths in British Columbia. This emergency continues to the present day. In response to the declaration, a range of harm reduction activities have been implemented in the VCH region, including:

  • creating overdose prevention sites (OPS) and supervised consumption services (SCS) in highly affected areas
  • drug checking services
  • harm reduction supply and 
  • needle distribution

Enhanced epidemiology and surveillance programs were implemented at Vancouver Coastal Health to monitor and evaluate the additional harm reduction interventions.

These updates summarize overdose visits in 10 emergency departments and at supervised consumption services and overdose prevention sites within the VCH region.

2024 overdose surveillance updates

2023 overdose surveillance updates

2022 overdose surveillance updates

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