Additional sites aimed at preventing drug overdoses open around B.C.
VANCOUVER — More overdose prevention sites are opening around British Columbia as health officials try to contain a growing overdose crisis.
Vancouver Coastal Health said Friday it has opened its fifth site in a modified first-aid trailer in the troubled Downtown Eastside, replacing a pop-up tent that had been operating since September.
Sarah Blyth, a former mental-health worker, said she launched the unsanctioned facility because she couldn’t stand by and watch as people overdosed.
“We are grateful for a warm, dry place, both for our volunteers and clients,” Blyth, who is the new site’s co-ordinator, said in a government news release about the small trailer set up in the heart of the Downtown Eastside, the neighbourhood where six people died in one day earlier this month.