Overdose Prevention Site
A welcoming, safe, supportive space for people who use drugs
to inject or snort in a monitored environment.
We believe that:
- It's our duty to respond to British Columbia’s Provincial Health Officer declaration of a public health emergency. This was declared under the Public Health Act in response to rising drug overdoses and related deaths in the province (April 2016).
- The community of Nelson, BC needs to respond to the minister of health's ministerial order under the Emergency Health Services act. This act orders Emergency Health services and regional health boards to provide, “overdose prevention services for the purpose of monitoring persons who are at risk of overdose, and providing rapid intervention as and when necessary, as ancillary health services, in any place there is a need for these services, as determined by the level of overdose related morbidity and mortality.”
- It's not any one kind of person who needs OPS access: they are a welcoming space to everyone.
We offer:
- Overdose prevention education, the privision of a designated monitored space for injection drug use and snorting, onsite monitoring of people who are at risk of overdose (and rapid response where necessary), distribution of all harm reduction supplies, safe disposal of harm reduction supplies, and referrals to treatement and other social services.
- In-house referrals to all other Interior Health mandated OPS core services: drug checking and Take Home Naloxone training and distribution to people who are likely to experience or witness an overdose.
- Staff and volunteers trained in First Aid, CPR, overdose prevention, recognition and response, and naloxone administration.
- A safer, stigma free space with no ulterior motives.
Get in touch
- sheldon.ankors@gmail.com
Our Videos
Our Favourite Resources
Overdose Prevention Services: Site Manual
A manual intended to provide guidance to Overdose Prevention Services within the Interior Health region on the operational components required to facilitate OPS services.
The History of Insite
The history of the first Overdose Prevention Site in BC through the Portland Hotel Society, starting in 2003. Insite was operating without full governmental support until a Supreme Court decision in 2011
Funded and Supported by:
