As the toxic drug public health emergency reaches its ninth year, Interior Health is continuing to take steps to prevent fatal overdoses.
Over the last year, Jessica Bridgeman, IH's manager for harm reduction, said that both IH and British Columbia as a whole have begun to see a decline in overdose-related deaths. While the numbers are decreasing, she noted that one overdose is one too many due to the impact it has on the family and community of the victims.
"Whether we have increases in drug overdoses or only one overdose, the conversation is super important right now, especially nine years after the public health emergency (was declared)," Bridgeman said. "We're keeping the conversation about overdoses going, the risk, how to stay safe and how to stay alive."
As of Feb. 28, 2025, there have been 21 overdose deaths in Interior Health, according to the B.C. Coroner Service compared to 393 in 2024 and an all-time high of 438 in 2022. Since 2014, 17,401 people have lost their lives to unregulated drug overdoses across B.C. The public health crisis was declared in April of 2016.
Bridgeman said that the team she runs operates a variety of programs and services to help reduce the impacts of drugs, such as the take-home naloxone program, access to harm reduction supplies, knowledge translation for people who use illegal substances and a drug checking program. Every chance she gets, she does her best to spread the word about these programs and services.
Anyone looking for mental health and substance abuse support can call 310-MHSU to find out what specific supports are available within the community. Bridgeman said they can also go online to IH's Virtual Addiction Medicine (VAM) Clinic and fill out a form to get access to drugs like naloxone, used to revive people during an overdose, or to find out where they can send samples of their drugs to the Interior Health Drug Checking program.
"We focus on a lot of different aspects of the public health emergency on toxic drugs. It's definitely substance use itself, but it's also community connection and anti-stigma. Helping people in our communities to understand more about the overdose crisis and the impact it's had on our communities and how many people have been lost," Bridgeman said.
The drug checking program is an example of that anti-stigma philosophy at work, Bridgeman noted. Those struggling with addiction can send samples of their drugs to an FTIR, or a Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy, an instrument that checks drugs for traces of fentanyl or other toxic substances.
Bridgeman said those who submit samples are informed of what's in their drugs, along with some harm reduction messaging. The nearest FTIRs are located in Williams Lake and Kamloops, though Bridgeman noted there are locations within 100 Mile House where you can drop off samples to be analysed, including at the South Cariboo Health Centre. She added that the health centre will also give out fentanyl test strips for use at home.
"Helping somebody to go in recovery and move towards treatment is harm reduction. It matters throughout the whole continuum of somebody's substance use that we support them in a compassionate way," Bridgeman said. "Harm reduction is really about compassion and supporting all the different interventions a person might need or want while they're using drugs."
She further explained that by providing drug testing services, they're reducing the likelihood of Hepatitis B and C transmission and the instances of an overdose. At the same time, Bridgeman said this allows health workers to build a relationship with drug users so that if they want to try something different, like rehab, they're able to help connect them with those services.
"Interior Health has lots of different entry points and programs that help. All doors are the right door, right? We want to make sure people are getting what they need," Bridgeman said.
More general harm reduction advice includes never using drugs alone, Bridgeman said, and having naloxone on hand when using. There is also the Lifeguard App which, when activated, will contact BC Emergency Health Services to call 911 if you suffer an overdose alone.
Bridgeman encourages anyone with a drug addiction who wants to access these services to call 310-MHSU or come by the South Cariboo Health Centre to learn more. As for community members looking to help someone through addiction, she advises them to have open conversations with their friends or loved ones.
"Just be the kind of person that somebody can tell you about their substance use. So much of substance use is about secrecy, shame and by being somebody you can have an open conversation with that can lead to you maybe being the trusted person that they reach out to when they're ready," Bridgeman said.
"Keeping the conversation going, helping people not to feel so scared, so ashamed, so stigmatised is what I think will help us continue to have safe communities, safe people we can talk to and the care and compassion we know every human deserves."
