The initiative, led by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Vancouver Coastal Health, uses the same strategy that helped drive down the province’s HIV and AIDS rates.
A pilot project in Vancouver is being expanded across British Columbia after more than double the number of drug-addicted people stayed in treatment to prevent them from fatally overdosing.
The initiative led by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Vancouver Coastal Health uses the same strategy that helped drive down the province’s HIV and AIDS rates and manage patients with other chronic conditions such as diabetes.
Dr. Rolando Barrios, the centre’s senior medical director, said a revamped system of care involves a team of doctors, nurses and social workers who take simple steps such as calling patients who don’t show up for appointments and work to address their other needs such as housing and employment.
The pilot at 17 clinics involved 1,100 patients and showed seven out of 10 of them stayed in treatment after three months, up from three out of 10. The program prescribes substitute opioids such as suboxone and methadone to curb illicit-drug cravings and ward off withdrawal symptoms.
Barrios said retaining people who are addicted to opioids like heroin and fentanyl in treatment is the biggest hurdle in the overdose crisis that has claimed 3,600 lives in B.C. alone since 2016.