Resources Available:
There are always ways to reduce the adverse health, social and financial effects of drug use, even when people aren’t ready to use less or stop. A harm reduction approach can help people who use drugs to improve their health and quality of life, and this can help loved ones and the community, too.
We believe in person-centered care, which means we think your goals and priorities are the most important. Our job is to provide our best advice and help you meet your goals in whatever safe way we can.
Here are some of the resources you can access through us:
- Sterile supplies for people who inject drugs
- Screening for infections
- Drug safety information and updates about street products
- Take home naloxone kits
- Information on supervised consumption services
Overdose Prevention
If you or someone you care about uses substances, knowing some important information and having some resources can save lives.
- Never use alone.
- Always have a Narcan (naloxone) kit on hand.
- Avoid mixing opioids with alcohol, benzodiazepines (“benzos”) or sleeping pills.
- Also avoid “speedballing”, mixing opioids with stimulants like crack, cocaine, meth (pint, speed, methamphetamine) which makes it hard to judge how much of each you’ve taken.
- If you haven’t used opioids for a while or have cut down, remember your tolerance to opioids goes down, so a dose that you may have tolerated earlier could kill you. Start low and go slow.
This video from the BC Centre for Disease Control’s service, “Toward the Heart” explains how to know if someone has OD’d and what to do: