Overdose Safety Planning involves a variety of measures and steps which people who use substances and practitioners, clients, community members, frontline workers, peers can all use in order to prevent overdoses.
Below is a poster for organizations and sites can use to remind people of harm reduction safety measures which can be taken. Please see this poster of harm reduction steps and ideas to prevent overdoses and stay alive following consumption/inhalation/injection of toxic drugs.
For more information visit - http://www.vch.ca/public-health/harm-reduction/overdose-prevention-response or email overdoseresponse@vch.ca
If using with a someone, stagger your dosing. See CATIEs resource on Safer Injection in Groups to further reduce your risks. Start with a small amount. Mixing substances, including alcohol, increases risk of overdose
Use where help is easily available (e.g. Overdose Prevention Site or Supervised Consumption site, or around other people)
Make a plan/know how to respond in case of an overdose
Carry a Take Home Naloxone (THN) kit (and learn how to use it before you need it!)
Have your drugs checked before using at VCH.ca/drugchecking
Use the LifeGuard App
Talk to your health care provider about alternatives to toxic substances
Help us warn people about contaminated street drugs
If someone overdoses (OD’s), tell us what happened and we'll send out an overdose alert. Use one of the following methods:
Fill out this anonymous form to report an overdose
Text “bad dope” to (236) 999-DOPE (3673)
Get drug contamination alerts
If you’d like to receive drug contamination alerts, text “alert” to (236) 999-DOPE (3673).