BC Gov News

The Province continues to enhance B.C.’s response to the toxic-drug crisis.

Budget 2024 builds on the historic $1-billion investment for mental health and addictions in Budget 2023. Since 2017, government has made new investments in mental-health and substance-use supports of more than $2.6 billion through 2024-25. Budget 2024 includes $215 million to continue mental-health and addiction services and additional funding in the capital plan to support treatment and recovery beds, including the work toward expanding the Red Fish healing model and Road to Recovery model.

For more data on the drug-poisoning response:

Visit the BC Centre for Disease Control's (BCCDC) dashboard for data on opioid agonist treatment (OAT), overdose prevention sites and supervised consumption sites (OPS/SCS), Take Home Naloxone, prescribed alternatives, and more: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/bccdc/viz/UnregulatedDrugPoisoningEmergencyDashboard/Introduction

Recent actions:

The Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions is working urgently to expand access to mental-health and addictions care, including increasing early intervention and prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery services, complex-care housing, and more.

Early intervention and prevention:

Foundry centres  
Foundry is a provincewide network of integrated youth centres and virtual supports, offering free and confidential counselling, primary-care, sexual-health and substance-use services to young people aged 12-24 and their families.

There are 17 Foundry centres open throughout the province in Vancouver-Granville, North Shore (North Vancouver), Campbell River, Ridge Meadows, Abbotsford, Kelowna, Prince George, Victoria, Penticton, Terrace, Comox Valley, Langley, Richmond, Cariboo-Chilcotin (Williams Lake), Sea to Sky (Squamish), Port Hardy and East Kootenay (Cranbrook).

An additional 18 Foundry centres are in development in Burns Lake, Burnaby, Chilliwack, Fort St. John, Kamloops, Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Quesnel, Sooke-West Shore, South Surrey, Sunshine Coast, Surrey, Tri-Cities, Vancouver, Vanderhoof, Vernon, qathet (Powell River) and West Kootenay.

More than 45,000 young people in B.C. have accessed Foundry services since April 2018, including more than 16,000 in 2023-24.

Integrated child and youth (ICY) teams  
ICY teams are multidisciplinary, community-based teams that deliver integrated mental health and addictions care for children and youth, including those with different abilities, backgrounds and situations. They serve all children, youth and families residing within a school district boundary, including those attending schools operated by First Nations, independent schools, alternative school environments or those not in school. Team members work together to remove barriers of access and connect people to the right care they need, when and where they need it. The Province invested $101 million over three years to implement teams in 20 school districts by 2024 to be fully operational by 2025.

ICY teams are operating or being implemented in 12 communities: Coast Mountains (Terrace, Hazelton), Comox Valley, Fraser-Cascade (Hope, Agassiz-Harrison), Kootenay-Columbia (Castlegar/Trail), Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows, Mission, Nanaimo-Ladysmith, North Okanagan-Shuswap (Salmon Arm), Okanagan-Similkameen (Oliver, Keremeos), Pacific Rim (Port Alberni), qathet (Powell River) and Richmond.

Communities with teams in operation are supporting at least 1,420 young people per month.

Eight more school district communities were announced in April 2024: Central Coast, Cowichan Valley, Delta, Gold Trail, Nicola-Similkameen (Princeton-Merritt), Peace River South, Qualicum and Surrey.

Treatment and recovery

The B.C. government has prioritized making new treatment and recovery beds available to those who need them, with 607 new publicly funded adult and youth (72 youth beds) substance-use beds opened since 2017, and more to come. There are now 3,633 publicly funded adult and youth (170 youth beds) substance-use treatment beds across the province. 

Government is also rolling out Road to Recovery, a new model of seamless care to support people through their entire recovery journey from detox to treatment to aftercare.

Substance-use services for young people  
There is nothing more important than keeping young people safe, and that starts with education on the dangers of toxic drugs.

To complement bed-based services, the Province made a historic investment in 33 new and expanded youth substance use services starting in 2021-22. These provide a range of supports to meet the unique needs of each youth served, including wrapround supports, school and community-based prevention and early intervention resources, community-based youth substance use treatment and recovery services, and crisis intervention services.

A youth-focused campaign on the illicit poisoned-drug supply was launched in December 2023 that provides information about drug use, as well as resources to help parents have frank, non-judgmental conversations with their kids about drug use and its dangers. Having these early conversations is key to preventing problematic substance use before it starts.

Urgent and Primary Care Centres  
Mental-health and addiction supports can be found at Urgent and Primary Care Centres in 35 locations throughout B.C., where clinicians are available 365 days a year for same-day access. Primary Care Networks build a team of professionals around patients and their needs, and improve access to early interventions for people experiencing mild to moderate mental-health and addictions challenges, and to more specialized supports when needed.

There are 77 Primary Care Networks in B.C., with a targeted total of 99 by the end of (fiscal year) 2024-25. 

Opioid Agonist Treatment  
Opioid Agonist Treatment is the preferred initial treatment option for people with opioid addiction. The number of people dispensed opioid agonist treatment in the month of April 2024 was 24,388. The number of clinicians prescribing any form of opioid agonist treatment increased from 773 in June 2017 to 2,051 in the month of April 2024.

Access has also been significantly expanded through Rapid Access to Addictions Care Clinics in all health regions, so more people can access the care they need, where and when they need it. A provincewide system to allow virtual access to OAT for people anywhere in the province is being planned.

Prescribers  
To increase the number of clinicians who can prescribe medications for opioid-use disorder, particularly in rural and remote parts of the province, registered nurses (RNs) and registered psychiatric nurses (RPNs) can now complete training to begin prescribing opioid agonist treatment.

In November 2021, the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) launched training to enable RN and RPN prescribers to offer OAT. As of May 2024, 288 RNs and RPNs from all health authorities have enrolled and 182 have completed their training. In April 2024, 233 patients received dispenses for buprenorphine/naloxone, methadone or slow-release oral morphine at community pharmacies in B.C. from a RN or RPN prescribers with certified practice for opioid use disorder.

Harm reduction

Prescribed alternatives  
B.C. is the first jurisdiction to offer a provincewide prescribed alternatives program.

People have been accessing prescribed safer supply since March 2020, when the Province introduced the first phase. In April 2024, 4,387 people were dispensed any prescribed alternatives. The number of clinicians prescribing any prescribed alternatives in April 2024 was 741.

Overdose prevention and supervised consumption services (OPS/SCS)  
The Province is improving access to overdose prevention services that offer observed inhalation services in communities hardest hit by the drug-poisoning crisis.  

The number of overdose prevention services sites has significantly increased from one site in 2016 to 51 as of April 2024, including 24 sites offering inhalation services. 

In April 2024, there were 70,217 visits to overdose prevention services and supervised consumption sites, of which 44,803 visits were for inhalation overdose prevention and supervised consumption services.

Drug-checking services  
There are a number of drug-checking services throughout the province to help people learn what is detected in the substances they are taking to reduce the risk of drug poisoning and connect them to supportive services.

Throughout British Columbia, 119 locations have opened where people can drop off a drug sample for analysis. Fifty-seven of these offer immediate point-of-care testing with a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer on some days of the week. The expansion of sample-collection sites reduces rural inequities and improves access to drug-checking services for more British Columbians.

There are 23 FTIR spectrometers for drug checking operating in B.C.: Fraser Health (four); Interior Health (seven); Northern Health (two); Island Health (six); Vancouver Coastal Health (four). In addition, there are three Fourier Transform Infrared instruments owned by the BC Centre on Substance Use.

Lifeguard app  
The free app helps save lives by automatically connecting people who use drugs to first responders if the user becomes unresponsive. Since its launch in late May 2020 to April 2024, the app LifeguardLite™ and LifeguardConnect™ has been used 150,693 times by 38,194 app users. To date, the app has prompted 217 emergency responder calls and 101 overdose reversals. Lifeguard also provides drug alerts. The free app helps save lives by automatically connecting people who use drugs to first responders if the user becomes unresponsive.

Take-home naloxone kits  
As of April 2024, more than 2.3 million kits have been shipped. The kits are available at more than 2,292 locations, including 886 community pharmacies in B.C.

Indigenous-led solutions

First-Nation-run treatment and healing centres  
As per commitments in the Memorandum of Understanding: Tripartite Partnership to Improve Mental Health and Wellness Services and Achieve Progress on the Determinants of Health and Wellness (MOU), the Province has provided funding to support the completion of eight community-based First Nations treatment centre projects. Six are being renovated and two new facilities are being planned: one in the Vancouver Coastal region and the other in the Fraser Salish region.

These facilities are supported by $20 million from the Government of B.C., matched by $20 million each from the federal government and the First Nations Health Authority, to support the renovation and replacement of First Nation-run treatment centres throughout B.C. In addition, the Province has allocated one-time funding of $35 million to the First Nations Health Authority for these centres.

In November 2023, the Tsow-Tun Le Lum Healing House in Duncan was completed, marking the first treatment centre supported by this funding. 

Provincial drug-poisoning emergency response for First Nations communities  
The ministry continues to support Indigenous-led approaches to prevention and harm reduction, as well as culturally safe substance-use care and treatment services.

As part of the $586 million across the spectrum of services and supports for people experiencing addiction, Budget 2023 invested $171.1 million over three years for Indigenous-led recovery and aftercare services and supports, founded on the strengths of culture, language and identity to build resiliency and overcome unresolved trauma.

The Province continues previous investments of $37.62 million over three years to support Indigenous-led approaches to prevention and harm reduction as well as culturally safe substance-use care and treatment services, which includes, $24 million to support the First Nations Health Authorities with the drug-poisoning emergency response.

The Province has supported culture-based mental-health and wellness capacity for BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres in the amount of $375,000 each annually.

Complex-care housing

Complex-care housing provides people with very complex mental-health and addiction challenges a cohesive system of supports that address the health, housing, cultural and social needs of the individual. The service model aims to support people who have experienced challenges in maintaining their housing, including those who may be transitioning from other health services or the criminal justice system.

Since January 2022, the Province has announced complex-care housing services in Abbotsford, Burnaby, Bella Coola, Chilliwack, Cranbrook, Kamloops, Kelowna, Langley, Maple Ridge, Nanaimo, New Westminster and the Tri-Cities, North Vancouver, Powell River, Prince George, Richmond, Sechelt, Sunshine Coast, Surrey, Terrace, Vancouver and Victoria.

As of May 1, 2024, services are in place for as many as 462 people.

In April 2024, the Province announced the addition of 240 new complex-care housing units coming to communities throughout the province, including 40 units that will be Indigenous-led.

Safer communities action plan

As part of the Safer Communities Action Plan, the Province is expanding mental-health crisis-response teams into more communities so people in crisis can get more supports from health-care workers and community members.

Peer Assisted Care Teams  
Peer Assisted Care Teams (PACTs) bring together trained peers and mental-health professionals, such as social workers and counsellors, to offer trauma-informed and culturally safe support and a civilian-based approach to mental-health and addiction crises. PACTs offer support for individuals aged 13 and older, addressing a wide range of distresses from thoughts of self-harm or suicide to addiction, loss of reality, social isolation and more.

There are PACTs in Victoria, the North Shore and New Westminster. They responded to nearly 4,000 calls in 2023.

Teams in the Comox Valley, Prince George and Kamloops are expected to launch this year. 

Mobile Integrated Crisis Response Teams  
Mobile Integrated Crisis Response (MICR) Teams, also known as “car programs,” unite mental-health professionals with police officers to deliver an immediate, empathetic response to mental-health and substance-use emergencies across communities.

MICR Teams provide a compassionate alternative to the criminal justice system for those in crisis, while freeing police resources to focus on crime and repeat offending.

There are 17 MICR  or similar teams in operation in: Abbotsford, Burnaby, Chilliwack, Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam, Fort St. John, Kamloops, Kelowna, on the North Shore, Nanaimo, Penticton, Prince George, Richmond, Surrey, Vancouver, Victoria, Vernon and on the Westshore.

In addition, teams in Prince Rupert and Squamish are expected to launch in 2024.

Help starts here

The “Stories of Support" campaign, launched in December 2023, showcases real-life stories that highlight the various paths people take toward healing and recovery.

The campaign connects individuals to a key resource offering comprehensive information on mental health and addiction supports throughout the province: https://helpstartshere.gov.bc.ca/