Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

In April 2016, British Columbia's Provincial Medical Officer declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. This enabled the quick adoption of new harm reduction services to meet the needs of people who use illicit drugs (PWUD). Beginning in December 2016, overdose prevention (OPSs) and supervised consumption (SCSs) sites opened across the province, including mobile units in Kelowna and Kamloops. Multiple studies have demonstrated the local effects of Vancouver's InSite program in reducing mortality and the transmission of infectious diseases. To date however, there have been no evaluations of the population-level health and health system effects of OPSs and SCSs. This includes a dearth of information on the effectiveness of SCSs/OPSs on mitigating severe overdose events and overdose-related sequelae, and the consumption of acute care services. The objective of the project is to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the effects (including intended and unintended positive and negative consequences) of the newly implemented OPSs and SCSs on opioid overdose related events, health outcomes, and health services used. We will use the BC Overdose Cohort and modern epidemiologic and econometric methods to: a) conduct an exploratory analysis of the disease and health system burdens of severe opioid overdoses in BC; b) estimate the risk of overdose-related sequelae by overdose exposure, and the hazards of repeat overdose events on developing a sequela; and c) evaluate the population-level effects of the new SCSs and OPSs on overdose-related hospitalization, sequelae, and mortality events, and health services used. A timely evaluation of this set of interventions is critical to ensure we are responding appropriately to the opioid epidemic, and will fill in gaps in our collective knowledge to a growing international problem.