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Health authorities


The impacts of police and policing

The Director of Police Services must develop the following Provincial Policies for all policing agencies in British Columbia:

Recommendation 4: A Provincial Policy governing police interactions with intoxicated persons, in partnership with people who use drugs and people living with alcoholism, and fund the implementation of the Policy. This Policy should make it clear that:

  1. police interventions with a person who is intoxicated must be minimally impairing on liberty and officers must make the security of the person (health) the paramount consideration in determining whether to apprehend an individual;
  2. city cells are not the appropriate place to bring an intoxicated person for their own safety or other therapeutic reasons. Alternatives to detention including, but not limited to, sobering centres, hospitals, and other community-based options must be made available; and
  3. where an intoxicated person must be brought into cells, their health care needs shall be paramount and health care visits will be mandatory.



The impacts of police and policing

The Director of Police Services must develop the following Provincial Policies for all policing agencies in British Columbia:

Recommendation 6: A Provincial Policy on police attendance at overdoses which includes:

  1. a directive not to attend at drug overdose calls, except where requested by Emergency Health Services—usually in the event of a fatality or threats to public safety; and
  2. a clear statement that the role of law enforcement at the scene of a drug overdose is to deliver first aid if they are the only responders available, or to protect the safety of Emergency Health Services and members of the public, not to investigate the individuals or circumstances at the scene unless police determine that there is an urgent public safety concern, for example, if violence is occurring at the scene.



How court-imposed conditions set people up to fail

The Provincial Court of British Columbia should:

Recommendation 18: Create a Provincial Court resource outlining “harm reduction services,” including a definition of:

  1. “drug paraphernalia” as harm reduction equipment;
  2. “Safe Consumption Sites” and “Overdose Prevention Sites”;
  3. needle exchange;
  4. opioid substitution treatment; and v. low-barrier health services.



Service gaps and barriers

Recommendation 24: The Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions and the Ministry of Health must improve the ability of BC hospitals to meet the needs of people living with the effects of substance use, mental illness, and/or homelessness by:

  • auditing experiences in hospitals, beginning with an analysis of people’s experiences where they have been turned away from emergency rooms or discharged and where there have been negative health consequences;
  • working with people with lived experience to audit provincial standards for effectively managing substance withdrawal in hospital settings;
  • ensuring that all hospitals offer supervised consumption services to patients; and
  • working with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to create transitional housing options to ensuring that sick and injured people are not released from the hospital to the streets or to emergency shelter.



Service gaps and barriers

The Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction must make immediate changes to BC’s Income Assistance and Disability Assistance programs including:

Recommendation 28: Ensuring that people living with disabilities can access disability support by:

  1. simplifying the application process to reduce wait times and lessen reliance on advocates;
  2. providing provincial guidelines for doctors/service providers on how and when to fill out disability forms; and
  3. ensuring that hospital social workers are resourced and directed to work with patients in need to apply for disability benefits.



Service gaps and barriers

Recommendation 31: All government actors and health care providers must recognize the specific and indispensable expertise of people with lived experience. Increase peer-run and peer-delivered services and peer-support positions within government services by:

  • developing a provincial advisory board of people with lived experience of homelessness for BC Housing;
  • establishing provincial best practices for engaging people with lived experience of poverty, homelessness, and substance use in service delivery modelled on GIPA (Greater Involvement of People living with HIV/AIDS), MIPA (Meaningful Involvement of People Living with HIV), and NAUWU (Nothing About Us Without Us) principles;
  • collaborating with peer-led organizations to audit all provincial services (hospital, health, income assistance, shelter, housing) to identify and fund opportunities for peer engagement in service provision and planning; and
  • developing a model for peer-involvement in the design and execution of homeless counts.



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