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BC’s Mobile Response Team credited with helping 6,000 people in its first year

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The province is touting the success of its Mobile Response Team (MRT) as it marks one full year in operation.

The 13-member team provides immediate, short-term support to first responders, front-line workers, and others who respond to drug overdoses and deaths in BC. Some on the team are first responders themselves, while others are counselors, psychologists, or traumatologists.

“They have helped more than 6,000 people on the front lines in 57 different communities,” says Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy. “They’re really on the front lines of the overdose crisis.”

The provincial government has committed $1.7 million in funding for the MRT in this fiscal year, and in the next one.

“Four people a day are dying, and we will not cease our efforts until we turn the corner in this crisis,” Darcy says, adding they continue to push the federal government for greater support in addressing this public health emergency.

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