While the number of deaths in the opioid crisis scroll by on our newsfeeds like paper in a ticker-tape parade, the reality is that each death is a valuable and cherished loved one, say those who are closest to the crisis in Squamish.
“It is not happening somewhere else. It is happening here in our community and they are people who are loved and who are real people who are so important—and it could be anybody,” said Jenna Becker, project co-ordinator with the Sea to Sky Community Action Team. “It is really different, I think, than how people want to believe that is so far away.”
Sea to Sky CAT, led by Squamish Helping Hands and funded by the provincial government, is made up of representatives from various community organizations. The ensemble aims to tackle the overdose crisis in the Sea to Sky Corridor and come up with community lead solutions to save lives and reduce stigma.
Sarah Beech is involved with the community action team due to her lived experience.
She said she openly shares that she is in recovery because she wants to help reduce stigma in Squamish.
People who find out, can’t believe someone like her—an articulate, well dressed, healthy-looking young woman—has struggled with addiction.
“I am a recovering addict, and a recovering alcoholic,” she said, matter-of-factly. “An addict or an alcoholic can be anybody. It is your brother, your sister, your daughter, your mom.”
Stigma is harmful for those battling addiction and facing recovery, said Becker and Beech. People in these situations deserve to be treated with dignity just like everyone else, and there is hope for them.
“It is a painful thing to be in,” Beech said of addiction.
Her addiction started when she was very young, she said.
Being in recovery and slowly watching her friends die off due to the overdose crisis is also difficult, she said.
Her advice for those with friends and loved ones who are struggling is to be consistent.
“Letting them know that you are there for them once they are ready,” she said.
Becker noted that while there are many services in Squamish for those who use substances, it lacks a detox bed.
“Something I hear all the time is that when someone is ready to seek that help, if there isn’t something readily available, then you lose that person. To lose that person in that moment could mean that they are dying, because that is how crazy the drugs are now,” Becker said.
Residents currently have to leave Squamish for Vancouver in order to detox.
Most treatment centres require clients to have gone through detox before arriving.
Beech says when she was ready to detox, there wasn’t a bed.
She chose to detox at home, which was uncomfortable and didn’t feel safe, she said.
“It was very scary. Thankfully, I had the support of my friends and family members.”
She fears for the people who don’t have the support she has or who don’t have a stable roof over their heads.
By the numbers
There were 1,068 drug toxicity deaths in the province this year, as of Sept. 1.
So far in 2020, 84% of illicit drug toxicity deaths occurred inside, according to the BC Coroners Service.
Each month since the start of the pandemic has seen the number of deaths rise, to top 100 per month, stats from the service shows.
Post-mortem toxicology results suggest that there has been a greater number of cases with extreme fentanyl concentrations in April to August 2020 compared with previous months.
The doctor says
“I certainly would not contradict the voices you have heard in Squamish and probably other communities, that there are not the services required when people need them. That is an unfortunate reality,” said Dr. M-J Milloy, a research scientist at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU).
The opioid crisis shows that there are too many gaps in care, he said.
“Even though they reach out their hand for help, unfortunately, that help doesn’t arrive on time from the medical system,” he said, adding that he was not criticizing those in critical medicine.
He said that trying to solve the opioid crisis as it and COVID rages is a bit like trying to build a plane and fly it at the same time.
“Many people are doing really heroic work on the front lines of harm reduction and critical medicine trying to save lives.”
Addressing the gaps in care should be a priority of whoever is elected in the next provincial election, he said.
“The BC Liberals, who were in power before Mr. Horgan took some important steps. Mr. Horgan’s government has taken some steps as well. But clearly, given the continuing toll of preventable death, more needs to be done to put in the clinical services and the harm reduction services to save people’s lives.”
This story originally appeared in the Squamish Chief on Sept. 29.
