Walk with me - Uncovering the human dimensions of the drug poisoning crisis in small B.C. communities: Policy report - Comox Valley
Loading...
Issue Date
2021
Editor
Authors
Karsten, Sharon
License
Subject
Abstract
Since labelled a provincial emergency in 2016, the toxic drug poisoning crisis in B.C. has claimed over 7,000 lives. Government, health and community service providers alike have struggled to find solutions to the crisis, developing numerous interventions aimed to reduce deaths, harm and stigma. Despite these efforts, toxic drug poisoning deaths have continued to climb, with 2020 enacting the most fatalities ever. ‘Walk With Me’ is a research and community action project, developed in the Comox Valley and Kamloops, B.C. as a partnership between Comox Valley Art Gallery, Thompson Rivers University and AVI Health & Community Services, that aims to develop humanistic, and systems-based solutions to this crisis. The project brings people impacted by the crisis together for story- and insight-sharing, and disseminates key findings outward – to policy-makers, systems leaders and community members at-large. The project foregrounds the wisdom of people experiencing the crisis (people with lived experience, their family members and front-line workers). In centering lived experience, the project illuminates ways forward for community and systems transformation.