Submitted

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Cause for hope in opioid stats but not suicides

Aug 19, 2019 | 5:34 AM

KAMLOOPS — STATISTICS ARE IMPERSONAL but they tell stories. Sometimes they’re cold and cruel, sometimes hopeful.

Three recent reports from the B.C. Coroners Service illustrate this reality. One, released Friday, shows there were 35 per cent fewer fatal drug overdoses — most involving fentanyl — in June compared to a year ago.

In the Interior Health Authority, there were 196 overdose deaths last year, and 60 from the beginning of this year through June. That’s lower than all the other health regions except for the sparsely populated North.

All this gives reason for optimism amid suggestions that strategies to fight the opioid crisis are working.

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Now let’s look at another report, this one released last month. Of 572 suicides province-wide in 2017 — the most recent year for which there are stats — the IHA experienced 130. That was the second highest in the province, and a higher rate per 100,000 than any other region except the North.

In Kamloops, there were 16 suicides in 2017, a number that has held steady for the past 10 years.

A panel of experts says suicides are the leading cause of deaths among kids and youth in B.C.

In other words, what we’re doing isn’t working.

Everybody talks about the opioid crisis, as well we should. But nobody talks much about the suicide crisis. In 2017 there were almost half as many suicides as there were fentanyl-related deaths.

While opioid deaths seem to have spiked and hopefully are on the decline, suicides are not. So while we need to keep talking about drugs, we need to talk a lot more about suicide, and make it as urgent an issue as drug overdoses.

That means raising its profile and putting a lot more resources into doing something about it.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

If you are in crisis, call the Canada Suicide Prevention Service at 1 (833) 456-4566, connect to the Crisis Text Line by texting 686868, or if you’re 20 or younger, call Kids Help Phone at 1 (800) 668-6868.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.