By James Peters

Lake declared ‘hero’ for work on opioid crisis

Jun 7, 2017 | 10:00 AM

KAMLOOPS — Four years to the day after he was appointed BC’s Minister of Health, Terry Lake has been honoured for his leadership in addressing the province’s opioid crisis.

At a breakfast in Halifax this morning, Lake was given the National Public Health Hero award by the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA).

In recognizing Lake, the CPHA said he provided “unwavering support… for the declaration of a public health emergency and the subsequent actions to stem the tide of tragic deaths from illegal drug overdoses in BC.”

Speaking to CFJC News from Halifax, Lake said he was honoured to receive the award, and that a lot of groundbreaking work has been done in BC since the declaration of a public health emergency in 2016.

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“In the nomination, they said without what we have done, we would have lost hundreds and hundreds of more lives,” said Lake. 

“While there is still much more work to be done, we’ve done more than any other jurisdiction, and I, of course, just represent all of the people behind the scenes that have put such great work into this.”

“I really accepted it on behalf of all of the people in public health in British Columbia: the ministry support that I’ve had, the health authorities, people like (Provincial Health Officer) Dr. Perry Kendall and (Deputy Provincial Health Officer) Dr. Bonnie Henry who have played such an important role, and of course health authorities including IH that have done so much to prevent further deaths, although there’s much more to do still.”

Kendall and Henry nominated Lake for the award.

Lake was appointed to the health ministry on June 7, 2013, and said he had no idea what he would be facing.

“I did not think at that time that we would be dealing with an opioid epidemic that we’re dealing with. I never would have thought that we would have taken the kind of measures that have never been done in North America, in terms of expansion of naloxone, creating overdose prevention sites – really going outside of the normal harm reduction that we’ve seen previously.”

“The kinds of things we’ve seen happen, with the BC Centre for Substance Use, the training of physicians, the expansion of suboxone for treatment, the increase in mental health and substance use beds, all of this has been spurred on by this crisis – all of this has been spurred on by this crisis and we have to continue those efforts to make sure we can get these numbers down.”

The latest statistics from the BC Coroners Service showed 136 people died in April after overdosing on illicit drugs, making it the second deadliest month since the public health emergency was declared.

Lake says the expansion of public health services will have a lasting impact in BC.

“All of these things are relatively new and have been increased in terms of their rollout because of this crisis. In many ways, I think it will get us to a better place, but unfortunately there are people still dying today because of a poisonous drug supply.”

“We can’t have a crisis go by like this and squander the opportunity to do things better.”

Lake said he believes the crisis must now be treated as a national epidemic, and leadership should come from Ottawa.

“Although (federal Health) Minister (Jane) Philpott and her government have done a lot, there’s more to be done. I think if we saw the numbers in Ontario that we’re seeing in BC, there would still be more action on behalf of the federal government. I hope they will continue to look at more ways they can help reduce the crisis.”