B.C. overdose prevention sites should be template for others: report
VANCOUVER — It was a day Heather Hobbs recalls vividly: the staff at AIDS Vancouver Island had pulled another overdose victim from the washroom, his body was blue from a lack of oxygen.
The man was revived and they closed the office in Victoria to allow staff to regroup. At the same time, in an alley just a half a block away, another of their clients was dying from an overdose.
Hobbs said she remembers seeing the man leave the facility as they began cleaning up from the overdose. His death was the tipping point for the implementation of an overdose prevention site at their facility, even though they weren’t yet legal, she said.
“I feel like it’s possible, had we not had to have closed, that he would still be alive. So it’s those moments that stick with me and really drive it home that these spaces are essential in terms of keeping people alive,” said Hobbs, who is the manager of harm reduction services for AIDS Vancouver Island.