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The numbers are grim. Deaths from drug overdose in Kelowna are happening twice as often as they did just a year ago, but health workers are determined to turn the deadly trend around.
Nadine Rigby is the clinical operations manager for mental health and substance abuse in Kelowna. It's her job to oversee the effort to reduce overdose deaths.
"We meet people where they're at," she said, describing the strategy at Interior Health, "and try to provide overdose prevention education."
Rigby said people with drug addictions in Kelowna are aware of the risks, in part because they've seen people die.
"They're losing their friends every day," said Rigby. "They're losing the people they care about who they love. It affects them on a daily basis."
She said many of the people who have died locally were using alone. That's why they are urged to use supervised consumption sites, to use with a friend and to have naloxone kits handy and she said the messaging is getting through.
"None of the people who are dying in this crisis want to die," added Rigby, "so they're doing the best they can to stay safe. and to prevent overdoses."
Some have taken to using a smartphone app that automatically calls an ambulance if they lose consciousness while using drugs.
The spike in deaths is largely a result of the presence of fentanyl in the drug supply.
"It's not knowing exactly what you have when you're using," explained Rigby, "and then it's people feeling isolated and afraid to ask for support."
But she's hopeful, that the work being done to protect people and connect them to the services available can turn things around.
"We have more and more people accessing services," she points out. "We have more and more opportunities like this to speak about it and provide education to folks. The more that people hear about how to prevent overdoses, the greater chance we have of reducing this overdose crisis."
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