Compassion, Inclusion, & Engagement is a partnership program between the BC Centre for Disease Control and the First Nations Health Authority that empowers people with lived and living experience of substance use (peers) to take action and stop overdose in their community. The work that peers do is based in public health, saving lives, and ending the overdose crisis.

This is what our world can look like when we don’t criminalize people who use drugs.
This is what’s possible when we prioritize investment in community supports.
This is what investing in health equity and Indigenous health can do.

How CIE supports peers and makes an immediate impact

• CIE funds peer groups providing overdose response for those who are fearful of accessing sites during COVID-19, and in communities where overdose prevention sites don’t exist.
• CIE supports peers delivering clean and safe harm reduction supplies and training to individuals in isolation, who are immunocompromised, and who otherwise can’t access supplies.
• CIE helps peers establish meaningful connections in their community and work to eliminate stigma, which has been an ongoing contributor to the overdose crisis.

Thank you for helping us reach our first target of $30,000! We’ve increased our goal to $45,000 and we need your continued support to help us reach our new target. Will you help us get there?

Each CIE peer group is eligible for a grant of up to $10,000; the more we raise, the more groups across BC we can support. But we can’t do it without you.

Stand with us and show that investing in community support makes a greater difference than criminalizing people who use drugs.

We can’t risk losing any more of our friends and family to the overdose crisis. We’re already seeing the impact of dual public health crises on this community—we have to act now to prevent further deaths.

Please, donate to our Reducing Harms Priority today to support CIE and save lives.

The post The Overdose Crisis & COVID-19: Support Peers Through Two Emergencies appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Our experts from the BC Centre for Disease Control, VGH, UBC, and BC Cancer, supported by British Columbians, will prevent future outbreaks and save the lives of our most vulnerable. The breakthroughs that they achieve will benefit British Columbians first, with rapid sharing around the world. Our province will make this possible. You can make this possible.

Now is the time for collaboration. By coming together, we will beat this faster, and protect all of our loved ones.

The research that our partners at the BC Centre for Disease Control will be leading will prevent the spread of COVID-19 and keep our population safe. Click below to find out how your gift will help BCCDC experts prevent the spread of the virus. 

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The post Newsletter #10: March 2020 appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Our team spoke with Dr Réka Gustafson, Vice President, Public Health and Wellness, PHSA & Deputy Provincial Health Officer (who oversees the BC Centre for Disease Control), to find out exactly what public health professionals need to address the pandemic. Dr Gustafson identified two key areas where our public health professionals need support urgently:

Rapid Guideline Development
The situation is rapidly changing, and we need to have additional experts on the ground investigating new information and evidence as it arises, and turning that evidence into guidelines for healthcare professionals and the public. The healthcare system and individual practitioners rely on official guidelines developed by public health officials to instruct them on best practice, and the public relies on accurate and timely information on prevention and protection measures. Right now, we need more humans to investigate, evaluate, and develop those guidelines in real time.

Research in Real Time
During a pandemic, situations are constantly changing and evolving. Public health professionals must react immediately. What often isn’t able to happen during an outbreak is for research to be undertaken simultaneously in real time, to observe, describe, gather evidence and inform our experts on what’s working, what’s not, and what’s needed. Having infectious disease and outbreak experts dedicated to observing and describing what’s happening as it happens is critical to understanding a shifting landscape and to learning from it. We need to learn now, as this unfolds, so we can both react and respond quickly, and be prepared for future emergencies. This is imperative to allow public health to be prepared for the future and take steps faster. We have an opportunity to support this work like never before. 

Projects like these are what the Emergency Response Fund will support. We need to raise $325,000 right now to be able to make this work happen. More needs will be identified and updated as the situation progresses.

We’re calling on all British Columbians, businesses, and funding organizations to contribute towards these measures that will keep you, your family, and our population safe right now. We need to band together as British Columbians today to take action to protect our population.

You can donate online through our website here.

Cheques, cash donations, and donations over the phone can be made using the information at the end of this post.

Charitable tax receipts will be issued for all donations of $20 or more.

Please share this information widely. This affects all of us. We need everybody’s help right now. Help us by making a donation and sharing this information on social media, and via email with your friends, family, and colleagues.

For up to date information on the situation and how to protect yourself and others visit the BCCDC website and Health Canada.

The post Calling on British Columbians: Help Rapid-Response Efforts appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Declaring a pandemic means that there’s a new organism that’s infectious, like a virus, that is being spread over a large region or around the world, and is affecting a large percentage of the population. The word doesn’t tell us about the severity of the disease that’s caused by the virus. Symptoms may be mild or severe, meaning calling something a pandemic has no bearing on how an individual experiences the illness associated with it. The virus, age, and other medical conditions, dictate that.

Declaring a pandemic is not a call to warn people that it’s time to panic. It’s a call to encourage and enable governments and health officials to take stronger actions and to enlist emergency plans to protect the public

A few terms you’re probably hearing are “travel-related” or “imported” cases; these mean that cases arrive in a country or area because somebody traveled to a country where there is an outbreak, and brought it with them to a new area. Another term is “community transmission”. This means that there is spread of an illness with no known link to travel or contact with previously confirmed travel-related cases. The shift from travel-related transmission to community transmission impacts the decision to name it a pandemic. Not to be taken lightly, the WHO decides to characterize something as a pandemic when there are community outbreaks across large regions, e.g. several continents.

Declaring a pandemic is not a call to warn people that it’s time to panic. It’s a call to encourage and enable governments and health officials to take stronger actions and to enlist emergency plans to protect the public, like travel bans. All of this is done to protect the health of the global population and to slow the spread of the disease. By naming a disease a pandemic, countries are encouraged to take more aggressive actions. This is why the WHO named COVID-19 a pandemic.

We’re seeing some of those aggressive actions play out now as individuals are being asked to undertake measures for the greater good. Social distancing, self-isolation, self-monitoring for symptoms, working remotely when possible, avoiding travel and large crowds—these are a few of the measures we all must take.

All of this will lead to flattening the curve.

Flattening the curve means transmission is slowing, we are delaying spread, and there are fewer numbers of cases. The goal is to keep the number of new cases from rising too fast. A flattened curve is about keeping the number of cases low, to a number that our healthcare systems can effectively manage. Every person has a job to do to delay the spread of COVID-19. If we all play our role, the curve will flatten.

If we flatten the curve, we won’t run the risk of exhausting resources, and everybody who needs to receive care will be able to receive it.

What you can do is simple:

• Wash your hands regularly for 20 seconds
• If a sink isn’t available and if your hands are not visibly soiled, us alcohol based hand rubs
• Do not touch your face, eyes, nose, or mouth with unclean hands
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or the crook of your elbow when you sneeze or cough
• Frequently clean and disinfect commonly-touched surfaces like your phone, computer/keyboard, desk, door handles, light switches, remotes, toilets, sinks, and hard-backed chairs
• Don’t share food, drinks, or utensils
• Practice social distancing
• Stay home when you’re unwell

The situation is serious, but we can move the dial on how serious it can be. Take precautions, listen to public health experts, and take action to protect yourself and your community. And remember that you’re not alone—the world is fighting this together. Let’s have each other’s backs.

Read part two of this series, about some of the terminology associated with pandemics and public health, here.

The post Pandemics & How to Flatten the Curve appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Donations to the Emergency Response Fund will go towards understanding and preventing the spread of COVID-19 now, and be available for future outbreaks or emergencies. By making a gift to this fund, you’ll be helping address the most pressing public health needs to keep you and your community safe and healthy.

This fund will enable experts to protect our province by providing funding for things like:

• Research to understand and address the threat as it’s happening in real-time;
• Equipment and lab technology needed for testing and analyzing samples;
• Additional expert staff to carry out time-sensitive work and projects;
• Logistics, data management, data visualizations, and knowledge translation to ensure that experts across the spectrum can work together seamlessly and with the tools they need;
• And more, as the situation develops.

You can make a difference in preventing the spread of this outbreak and protecting the health of our population by making a gift to our Emergency Response Fund. Help us meet the rapidly-evolving needs in this global health emergency today. Your donation will assist experts at the BC Centre for Disease Control and elsewhere take action today that will keep us safe tomorrow.

All donations of $20 or more are eligible for a charitable tax receipt.
Should you require assistance making your gift, or have questions, please contact us at donate@bccdcfoundation.org or (604) 707-2415.

For the latest up-to-date information on the coronavirus outbreak, check the BC Centre for Disease Control. And, to learn about how to protect yourself from getting sick, use evidence-based information accessible from the BCCDC.

The post Emergency Response Fund appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Just prior to the panel discussion, a traditional welcome was provided by Robert Williams of Culture Saves Lives. The panel itself included experts in front line care/medical workers and people with lived experience. Jonathan Deakin from BC EHS, Erica Thompson from Fraser Health, and Robert Williams (mentioned above) joined Drs Jane Buxton and Mark Tyndall of the BCCDC. Moderated by Donald MacPherson, Executive Director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, the panel discussed what harm reduction efforts have been and what they can/should be, with regards to the ongoing overdose crisis. The audience had plenty of questions for the panelists.

After the discussion, there was time for break-out discussions that allowed the conversations to continue. “Harm Reduction 101” and “What’s Next” were well attended and provided attendees an opportunity to develop a better understanding of harm reduction strategies and actions needed, and encouraged dialogue around how to change the narrative and reduce stigma.

A number of community organizations had booths onsite providing additional information about what they’re doing to include harm reduction in their programming, including offering Naloxone training to anyone present who wanted to learn. Street Saviours, OPS (Overdose Prevention Society), RainCity Housing, Karmik, Pacific Association of First Nations’ Women, TORO (Tenant Overdose Response Organizers) and Moms Stop the Harm were some of the organizations in attendance.

The Foundation is pleased to continue our ongoing relationship with Science World to assist them in their goal of being a community hub where they can be a part of the response to issues facing our community. Stay tuned for future event announcements.

The post Important Conversations on Harm Reduction appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

BC is experiencing an overdose crisis and the public needs more information to dispel myths around drug addiction and who it affects. The BCCDC Foundation, BCCDC, and Science World teamed up to organize an event that had experts and health care workers share information as a public panel. Panelists included:

• Dr Mark Tyndall, BCCDC’s Executive Medical Director
• Sarah Blyth, Vancouver Overdose Prevention Society
• Sgt Mike Wheeler, VPD
• Erica Thomson, Fraser Health
• Patrick Smith (Four Bears, Culture Saves Lives
• Moderator: Don Shafer, Roundhouse Radio

A handout to provide basic information opioids, fentanyl, and the overdose emergency in BC was circulated for attendees. A downloadable copy for general use can be found on the BCCDC Resources page, with lots of other helpful information on the Toward The Heart website .

The panel answered questions about how we got here, how is the VPD responding to the overdose crisis, what are the social and environmental issues that need to be addressed, what can be done about a toxic drug supply and more. The panelists were able to provide diverse perspectives but shared a common voice in saying that a secure, safe drug supply is required, it is a time for bravery around drug policy, that key social supports are vital and that we must listen to and value the knowledge of those with lived experience.

Some of the many pieces of information shared can be found by searching the discussions on twitter, as the Foundation @bccdcfoundation ‘live-tweeted’ the event, along with others in the audience; read the hashtags #overdosecrisis and #overdosecrisisSW

The post Public Education Event on Overdose Crisis a Success appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Want to better understand drug addiction and the overdose crisis? join us for an important event where you will hear from experts and health care workers and discuss some of the myths around what drug addiction is and who it affects.

Confirmed panelists for the public education session will include BC Centre for Disease Control’s Executive Medical Director, Dr Mark Tyndall, Sarah Blythe of the Overdose Prevention Society and Sergeant Michael Wheeler of the Vancouver Police Department; stay tuned for others.

If you are interested in attending, please click here to register. (link disabled once event ended)

The post Public Awareness Event on Overdose Crisis appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

The BCCDC Foundation was pleased to sponsor Research Week, as well as take an active role on the organizing committee. We believe it’s important for all the teams at the BCCDC to benefit from seeing the results of each other’s hard work, and that’s a big reason for having an annual research knowledge translation event. If you missed some of the presentations, we have them archived here.

As well, thank you to all of the 50 BCCDC volunteers who participated in the Zombie Outbreak fun event at Science World on the last day of Research Week. From all accounts, the attendees had a lot of fun, were really engaged, and learned a lot about stopping the spread of infectious disease.

The post 10th Annual BCCDC Research Week a Success! appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.