The BC Coroner's Service has just released an updated account of overdose deaths in the province during 2016 and 2017
Its findings show that a vast number of the people that died as a result of drug overdose tried to seek help for mental health issues. In fact, the results show that over half of the people that died as a result of drug overdose had a clinical diagnosis or anecdotal evidence of a mental health disorder.
What's more, the report reveals that 79 per cent of people who died were in contact with health services in the year prior to their death.
Sadly, the majority of overdoes happened when people were alone. In fact, the clear majority, or 69 per cent of users, died alone from overdose; 81 per cent of deaths were male.
The report also stated that no deaths took place at supervised consumption or drug overdose prevention sites.
Opioid epidemic / Shutterstock
Interestingly, the report found that of the 872 people studied, 65% were never married and were not in a common-law relationship at the time of death. This figure is strikingly different than the provincial average at that time, which the report states was 27% of residents.
Last week, the Special Advisory Committee on the Epidemic of Opioid Overdoses found that the opioid crisis claimed over 1,000 Canadian lives in the first three months of 2018.
In British Columbia, unintentional illicit drug overdose deaths increased from 211 in 2010 to an estimated 1,450 in 2017.
