Reaching youth, caregivers, service providers, decision-makers, and researchers in diverse communities in BC to co-develop and implement youth-centered models of care for unregulated opioid use
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Year 2024Type Reach Awards
- Principal investigator Skye Barbic
- Co-lead(s) Steve Mathias, Foundry
- Host institution University of British Columbia
- Research location University of British Columbia - Vancouver Campus
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Team members
- Steve Mathias, Foundry
- Kirsten Marchand, University of British Columbia
- Avneet Dhillon, University of British Columbia
- Roxanne Turuba, University of British Columbia
- Violet Cameron, Foundry
- Heather Palis, BC Centre for Disease Control
- Julia Langton, Foundry
- Julie Zimmerman, Foundry
- Angela Olsen, Foundry
- Roberto Sassi, Women's Health Research Institute
In 2016, the BC government declared a public health emergency because of high numbers of people experiencing overdoses, mostly from opioids like fentanyl and heroin. Since that time, the number of overdoses among youth between the ages of 12-24 has been steadily increasing. This has taken a significant toll on youth and their caregivers and communities.
Overdoses can be avoided by providing youth with the help they need, as early as possible. However, youth who use drugs like fentanyl and heroin face a lot of challenges accessing services and supports. To address this problem, our team has worked with experts to create a model of care that is more aligned with the needs of youth who use opioids.
The next step of this project is to share this model of care with service providers in different regions of British Columbia. We will also gather feedback on how well this model of care fits service providers’ local experiences. This project will help service providers and policy makers put this model of care into practice so that youth who use opioids can get help more quickly.