{"id":2708,"date":"2022-01-03T18:54:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T18:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-pacific-public-health.pantheonsite.io\/?post_type=our-projects&p=2708"},"modified":"2024-06-26T21:43:12","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T21:43:12","slug":"safer-supply","status":"publish","type":"our-projects","link":"https:\/\/pacificpublichealth.ca\/projects\/safer-supply\/","title":{"rendered":"Safer Supply"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t
\n\t
\n\t
\n\t

Safer Supply<\/h1>

Combatting the toxic drug poisoning crisis in BC includes a continuum of strategies and solutions, from harm reduction tools like naloxone to treatment-based options like Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT), and many in between. However, these interventions are not enough. The 2022 and 2023 BC Coroner\u2019s Death Review Reports call for immediate action on lower-barrier and more equitable safer supply measures. The toxicity and volatility of the unregulated drug supply requires solutions that offer people who use drugs safer alternatives.

Prescribed safer supply is one available solution with no indication of contributing to overdoses. In fact, recent data from the first study to evaluate prescribing pharmaceutical alternatives at a population level demonstrated that providing pharmaceutical alternatives is associated with a reduction in deaths in the days immediately following. Furthermore, the protective effect increased with the number of days opioid medications were provided.

Risk Mitigation Guidance was stood up in early days of the pandemic when physical distancing and self-isolation were needed, to enable healthcare providers to prescribe select medications, including opioids and stimulants, to people at risk of overdose and withdrawal. While this was a critical pandemic intervention and led to BC\u2019s existing prescriber model introduced in July 2021, the current policy is limited, has several systemic barriers, has not kept pace with the needs, and only reaches a small number of people. Realistically, these safer supply options should more closely resemble what people are accessing in the unregulated, unpredictable market.

Continue reading about this critical project below.<\/strong><\/p>