BOOST and Coast Mental Health Collaboration Improves Lives of Those Living With OUD

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.

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During the Canada Post strike announced September 25, 2025, the following measures will be undertaken to minimize service disruption to BC-CfE clients and providers.

  • The BC-CfE Laboratory has transitioned to private courier for delivery of outgoing reports and documents. Results required urgently can be faxed upon request. (Lab Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8775; FAX 604-806-9463)
  • The BC-CfE Drug Treatment Program (DTP) will fax outgoing forms and documents to the provider’s office. (DTP Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8515; FAX 604-806-9044)
  • St. Paul’s Hospital Ambulatory Pharmacy has transitioned to private courier for delivery of medications. We recommend requesting medication at least 2 weeks in advance in case of delivery delays, particularly to rural/remote parts of BC. (Contact Information: Phone 1-800-547-3622; FAX 604-806-8675)

During the Canada Post strike, we recommend that documents be faxed or couriered to our sites, versus utilization of regular mail service

The BC-CfE Laboratory is streamlining reporting processes for certain tests in order to simplify distribution and record-keeping, and to ensure completeness of results. Beginning September 2, 2025, results for the ‘Resistance Analysis of HIV-1 Protease and Reverse Transcriptase’ (Protease-RT) and ‘HIV-1 Integrase Resistance Genotype’ tests will be combined into a single ‘HIV-1 Resistance Genotype Report’.
For more details and example reports, please click on the button below