More than 1,300 people have died from illicit drug poisoning in BC so far this year.
Some months saw a death toll greater than double the same month the previous year, and June alone had 183 people die of an overdose. This was the highest monthly overdose related death toll in BC’s history.
Now, more than ever, community-based harm reduction services and safer drug supply are needed to support people with opioid dependency. Coast Mental Health, a Vancouver-based non-profit founded in 1972, recognizes this urgent need and has recently highlighted its relationship to the BC-CfE’s BOOST QI Network.
Best-Practices in Oral Opioid agoniSt Therapy Collaborative (BOOST) was launched in 2017 as a partnership with the BC-CfE and Vancouver Coastal Health. Twenty healthcare teams across Vancouver joined the Collaborative, unified under the shared goal of improving care for clients living with opioid use disorder.
As a member of the BOOST QI network, the team at Coast Mental Health revealed the difficulties some people have in staying in recovery, and the support needed to stay on track. Among the first steps towards recovery is getting people with opioid use disorder (OUD) onto Opioid Agonist Therapy (OAT), which provides treatments that include Suboxone and methadone to treat opioid dependency, reduce drug-related harms, and support long-term recovery.
Doctors, nurse practitioners, social workers and mental health workers comprise the team supporting those on OAT, as the process can be overwhelming including frequent prescription pick-ups and follow-up healthcare appointments. Healthcare workers in the BOOST network often provide daily check-ins.
Foundry at Inner City Youth and COAST co-manage 19 rooms at the St Helen’s Hotel on Granville Street dedicated to youth/young adults aged between 19 and 24, all having experienced severe substance use disorder, mental health concerns, and homelessness.
In 2018, there were 24 overdoses recorded at St Helen’s by 11 different youth and tragically there was one youth overdose related death. In early 2019, a OAT youth clinic at St. Helen’s was established on site and the data indicates improved engagement with clients and fewer overdoses.
It’s thanks to these lessons learned through the Vancouver BOOST Collaborative that local healthcare workers can better identify clients lost to care, and then reconnect them to community healthcare services that are essential in their recovery.
Since its inception in 2017, BOOST has evolved into the BOOST QI Network, a quality improvement network designed to improve on the lessons learned through BOOST with regular meetings and an Annual Congress. The 2020 Annual Congress will occur at the beginning of December, with personal stories from families of persons living with OUD and an opportunity for teams to come together and share success, challenges and learn from one another.