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 with $215 million to continue existing mental-health and addiction services, and 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. Since 2017, the Province has made new investments in mental-health and substance-use supports of more than $2.6 billion through 2024-25.

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
Foundry is a provincewide network of integrated youth centres and virtual supports, offering free and confidential counselling, primary-care, sexual-health and addictions services to young people aged 12-24 and their families. Foundry is a part of the local public health care network, and the services are a fundamental part of the Province’s delivery of health care, including mental-health and substance-use care, for young people.

There are 17 Foundry centres open throughout the province, in Vancouver-Granville, North Shore (North Vancouver and West 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, and qathet (Powell River) and West Kootenay.

More than 16,000 young people throughout B.C. accessed Foundry services in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Integrated Child and Youth (ICY) teams
ICY teams are multidisciplinary, community-based teams that deliver integrated mental-health and substance-use 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 First Nations-operated schools, independent schools, alternative school environments and 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 20 communities: Central Coast (Bella Coola, Bella Bella), Coast Mountains (Terrace, Hazelton), Comox Valley, Cowichan Valley, Delta, Fraser-Cascade (Hope, Agassiz-Harrison), Gold Trail (Lytton, Cache Creek, Lillooet), Kootenay-Columbia (Castlegar, Trail), Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows, Mission, Nanaimo-Ladysmith, Nicola-Similkameen (Princeton, Merritt), North Okanagan-Shuswap (Salmon Arm), Okanagan-Similkameen (Oliver, Keremeos), Pacific Rim (Port Alberni), Peace River South (Dawson Creek, Chetwynd), qathet (Powell River), Qualicum, Richmond and Surrey.

Communities with teams in operation are supporting at least 1,447 young people per month.

TREATMENT AND RECOVERY

The B.C. government has prioritized making new treatment and recovery beds available to those who need them, with more than 650 new publicly funded adult and youth (110 youth beds) substance-use beds opened since 2017 and more to come. There are now 3,645 publicly funded adult and youth (170 youth beds) substance-use beds throughout the province.

Between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, 1,000 more people accessed a treatment or recovery bed than the previous year.

In July 2024, the Province announced the expansion of Road to Recovery across the province. The expansion will include as many as 100 new substance-use beds over the next three years and new or expanded outpatient services in all health authorities, as well as a single-access line to get connected to addictions care in each health-authority region. Originally launched in Vancouver, this new model of seamless care supports people through their entire recovery journey from detox to treatment to aftercare. With this expansion, anyone in B.C. will be able to call a single line to get information, receive a clinical assessment, develop an individualized care plan and access treatment. Since launching in Vancouver October 2023 until July 2024, the Access Central service received more than 14,000 calls. Of these calls more than 3,300 were requests for detox services. More than 1,530 people were admitted to bed-based detox services through Access Central between October 2023 and June 2024.

The Province also recently announced the expansion of the Hope to Health clinic in the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver. This will help attach an additional 1,000 people with severe mental-health and addictions challenges to primary care and support over the next year, helping them stay connected to their care plans.

Additionally, the Province is investing in new recovery community centres – called Junctions – across BC to provide low-barrier, community-based supports beyond the clinical setting to support long-term recovery. There are currently three Junctions open. The first centre has been operating in Vancouver since 2022 and there are now two more located in the North Shore and in Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast. In the 20 months ending June 2024, the Vancouver Junction recovery community centre saw more than 855 participants sign up to access programs and support and offered more than 1,175 groups and activities. Through Budget 2023, the Province is bringing the Junction model to four more communities so people can access supports throughout their recovery journey.

Rapid Access Addiction Clinics (RAACs) also provide support for people who are ready to change how they’re using substances. They can help with harm reduction, access to supports and medicines such as Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT) and transitions to other long-term support programs. These clinics are available in Vancouver, Victoria, Surrey, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission, New Westminster and Kamloops.

HelpStartsHere

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

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

Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT)
OAT is the initial treatment option for people with opioid addiction. The number of people dispensed opioid agonist treatment in the month of July 2024 was 23,924. The number of clinicians prescribing any form of opioid agonist treatment increased from 773 in June 2017 to 2,015 in the month of July 2024.

In August 2024, the Province also launched a new provincial Opioid Treatment Access Line to make it faster and easier for people to access life-saving medication to treat opioid use disorder and get connected to same-day care. People struggling with opioid addiction can call 1 833 804-8111 toll-free for immediate assistance from a dedicated team, including doctors and nurses, who can prescribe life-saving opioid agonist medications. The service is confidential, the treatment is covered under BC PharmaCare, and it is available seven days a week from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.

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 become certified to prescribe opioid agonist treatment.

As of Aug. 31, 2024, 195 registered nurses (RNs) and registered psychiatric nurses (RPNs) from all health authorities had fully completed their training for Community of Practice – Opioid Use Disorder. In July 2024, 697 patients received dispenses for buprenorphine/naloxone, methadone, or slow-release oral morphine at community pharmacies within B.C., written by 69 RN or RPN prescribers.  

Urgent and Primary Care Centres
Mental-health and addiction supports can be found at Urgent and Primary Care Centres in 39 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.            

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 invested in 33 new and expanded non-bed based substance use services that provided supports to 12,848 young people in 2023-24 fiscal year. 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, transition supports to improve care in community settings and discharge planning, and crisis-intervention services.

Budget 2023 provided more than $236 million over three years to create more services for young people, including crisis supports, culturally safe wraparound services, enhanced transition services and improved emergency room hospital-based care and discharge planning. The Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions is working with health authorities to implement new services across the province.

HARM REDUCTION

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 more than 50 sites in 2024 reporting witnessed consumption of substances, including 26 sites reporting the provision of witnessed inhalation services.

In the month of July 2024, there were more than 77,000 visits to overdose prevention services and supervised consumption sites, of which almost 52,000 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, 120 locations have opened where people can drop off a drug sample for analysis. Of these, 58 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.

Take-home naloxone kits
As of July 2024, more than 2.44 million kits had been shipped, with more than 40,000 kits shipped in July 2024 alone. The kits are available at more than 2,340 locations, including 912 community pharmacies in B.C.

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 June 2024, there have been more than 144,000 uses of the app from nearly 19,000 users, prompting 200 calls to 911, leading to 114 “confirmed OK” callbacks and 92 overdose reversals. No deaths have been reported.

Lifeguard also provides drug alerts and how-to guides for giving CPR and naloxone.

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

People have been accessing prescribed alternatives since March 2020. In the month of July 2024, 4,029 people were dispensed prescribed alternatives. The number of clinicians prescribing any prescribed alternatives in July 2024 was 723.

INDIGENOUS-LED SOLUTIONS

First Nations treatment and healing centres
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 First Nations treatment-centre projects. The funding will replace six existing treatment facilities and build two new facilities: 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 Nations treatment centres throughout B.C. In addition, the Province has allocated one-time funding of $35 million to the First Nations Health Authority to support completion of these facilities.

In November 2023, the Tsow-Tun Le Lum Healing House in Duncan was completed, marking the first treatment centre to be operational with the support of this funding. Tsow-Tun Le Lum welcomed its first clients in early January 2024, and officially opened its doors on Sept. 13, 2024.

In January 2024, the province provided one-time engagement funding to Lheidli T’enneh First Nation to design a youth centre of excellence in Prince George.

In April 2024, the Province supported the launch of B.C.’s first treatment and healing centre for Indigenous youth on Vancouver Island, at Orca Lelum Youth Wellness Centre in Lantzville. When fully operational, the centre will provide 20 substance-use beds that offer culturally informed care to Indigenous people 12 to 18 years old.

In July 2024, the We Wai Kai Nation, with support from the Province, announced the conversion of its former Tsa̲kwa̲’luta̲n resort into a new healing centre dedicated to helping people struggling with addiction. The centre will offer cultural and medical healing services for as many as 40 people at a time and is on track to have 20 adult treatment beds available by fall/winter 2024.

In September 2024, the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, along with the Community Action Initiative (CAI) and the First Nations Health Authority, announced support for 11 First Nations, Métis, Inuit and urban Indigenous-led organizations providing bed-based treatment and recovery services with one-time funding of $25,000 each.

The Province is also supporting a new First Nations wellness centre in the Kootenays, which celebrated its groundbreaking September 2024. The Seven Nations Soaring Eagle Treatment Centre is a planned addictions-treatment centre that will provide 16 beds. The centre is under construction with completion anticipated for spring 2026.

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 addictions care and treatment services.

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 include $24 million to support the First Nations Health Authorities with the drug-poisoning emergency response. For more information about programs and services available for First Nation people around B.C., visit: https://www.fnha.ca/

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

COMPLEX-CARE HOUSING

Complex-care housing provides people with overlapping mental-health and addiction challenges and other significant health challenges access to 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 homelessness or other health services.

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 Aug. 1, 2024, there were services in place for as many as 514 people and a further 240 homes in development.

SAFER COMMUNITIES ACTION PLAN

Announced in September 2024, the Province is taking action to make sure people with long-term concurrent mental-health and addiction challenges get secure and dignified care by opening highly secure facilities for people under the Mental Health Act throughout the province, as well as secure treatment within BC Corrections.

Peer Assisted Care Teams (PACTs)
PACTs bring together trained peers and mental-health professionals, such as social workers and counsellors, offer trauma-informed and culturally safe support to offer a civilian-based approach to mental-health and addiction-related crises. PACTs offer support for individuals 13 years 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 and Prince George. PACTs in Comox Valley and Kamloops will begin operating later in 2024. In 2023, New Westminster and Victoria PACTs responded to more than 1,500 calls for help. In these communities, an estimated 1% of PACT-attended calls between January to July 2024 required police intervention. Another team in Prince George launched in July.

Mobile Integrated Crisis Response (MICR) teams
MICR teams, also known as "Car programs," partner 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, North Shore, Nanaimo, Penticton, Prince George, Richmond, Surrey, Vancouver, Victoria, Vernon and Westshore.

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