Substance Use and the Paramedic Role - Jen Bolster

Critical Levels

In British Columbia 7 people per day are dying as a result of a highly contaminated toxic supply of drugs. Since the announcement of the public health crisis related to illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2016 over 12,000 people have lost their lives.

Despite previous misconceptions that the toxic drug crisis is confined to Vancouver’s lower mainland and the downtown east side, Jen is sounding the alarm that not a square inch of the province of BC has been unaffected by the crisis. Working on the frontlines of a provincial organization means every patient and every paramedic is being affected, and as a service provider the organization is burdened with the monumental task of meeting the demand for emergency health services in rural communities that otherwise have never required such a response.

Jen emphasizes the importance of the paramedic role given the frequency at which they interact with people who use drugs. She proffers that paramedics are uniquely positioned to offer alternative models of care that aim to reduce harm, but that the window of opportunity to offer these tools is narrowing.

In this episode Jen speaks to some of the things paramedics can be doing to reduce harm in their approach, and in pathways that their organizations can be offering to patients. You can learn more about what the literature is saying about the paramedic role in caring for people who use drugs in Jen’s scoping review.

You can contact Jen on twitter at @jlynnbolster or e-mail her directly at [e-mail]