Canada’s first and only overdose prevention site for women

WATCH – FOR THE LOVE OF LIFE –

May 27, 2021 – While all women are welcome, including those who identify as transfeminine, 82 per cent of people using the site identify themselves as Indigenous.

“There is a higher group of First Nations women that access the space.”

Indigenous people in B.C. have been hard hit by the overdose crisis, which is being fuelled by toxic drugs like fentanyl.

New data from the province’s First Nations Health Authority shows a 119-per-cent increase in First Nations illicit overdose deaths since the start of the pandemic.

“The data underscores the immense toll that drug toxicity is having on the lives of Indigenous people and their communities,” said FNHA’s Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shannon McDonald.

First Nations, Métis and Inuit people represent just over three per cent of B.C.’s population yet accounted for 15 per cent of toxic drug deaths last year.

As for Indigenous women, the Health Authority says they are overdosing at a much higher rate than other women in B.C.

“Thirty-two-point-three per cent of First Nations people who died in the province in 2020 were women,” said Dr. Nel Wieman, FNHA Acting Deputy Chief Medical Officer. “First Nations women are overrepresented in the toxic drug death data.”