Forum aimed at getting youth, parents talking about opioid addiction

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Trying to equip you with the right information to navigate the opioid crisis.

That was the focus of a public forum on fentanyl in Vancouver Wednesday, as BC continues to grapples with an epidemic that claimed more than 1,400 lives last year.

The gathering –held at John Oliver Secondary School– was organized by the Vancouver School Board, Vancouver Police, and Vancouver Coastal Health.

According to VCH, adults are overwhelmingly affected by the opioid epidemic. So why target high school students?

“The causes of addiction, many of them are actually rooted in early childhood experiences,” explains Medical Health Officer Reka Gustafson. “Some adverse childhood experiences, and also just choices you make as a young person. So one of the things, for example, that we know is that the longer you delay trying psychoactive substances, the less likely you are to have problems with them.”

She also believes the opioid crisis has brought the issue of substance use and addiction in the community to the forefront.

“It’s actually something that we all need to recognize and understand, and start treating like a health issue,” Gustafson adds.

For Art Steinmann, the manager of the VSB’s SACY program, agrees with the importance of getting youth to talk about addiction, despite actual overdose deaths affecting more adult men than younger people. “However, those adults have kids, and they have kids in high school. So we do notice that as these overdoses occur, young people in our schools, some of them, are impacted sometimes quite profoundly.”

“Also, with social media young people are very connected across the city, so even though maybe an adult has an overdose in a school miles from my kid’s school, my kid may know youth there, may be on social media with those youth and may actually be quite affected and impacted by it,” he says.

Steinmann adds it’s become similar to say first aid education. “It’s just general, broad public education that from about grade eight and up, everybody should know what an overdose is, what to do if they see one, and how to get help.”

By engaging the whole community, he believes it creates a more welcoming and comfortable atmosphere that encourages young people to ask questions and tell stories.

“We want to create an environment where we’re transparent and open and we talk about this like we might about cancer, about heart disease, or about any other health or social issue for that matter,” he explains. “Trying to create more openness and more dialogue. We all learn from one another, and we learn from people who have different points of view. So the more we get more people talking about it and discussing and questioning, I think everyone benefits from that.”

Police Constable Rusty Fostvelt has been a school liaison officer at Britannia Secondary School for three years now. He says the forum is a good way to show parents there are little things they can do to help.

“[Parents, guardians] don’t have to do anything, you don’t have to play hockey, you don’t have to play soccer. All you’ve got to do sit there and watch them, that’s all they really need. For me that’s the biggest factor.”

He says it’s something that simple, and adds kids notice these things. “It’s all it takes, presence is the best presence.”

2017 marked the worst year on record in BC for overdose deaths. While there have been some improvements, many activists say there’s still more work to be done.

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