Now What? Brain Injury after Overdose

Over five years have passed since the Province declared a public health emergency and yet rates of overdose and poisoning deaths continue to rise. Since then, over 281,950 take-home Naxolone kits have been distributed and over 100,787 have been used to reverse an overdose. Many deaths have been averted, but what remains unsaid and unseen is that people who overdosed and survived experienced respiratory depression, where their brains were restricted from receiving oxygen for variable amounts of time. Oxygen is essential to the human brain and a lack of it can cause damage and disability.

Nanaimo Brain Injury Society has worked with individuals who have experienced respiratory depression and have seen first-hand the struggles that coincide. It is through this work that they and their community partners started asking what a response to people affected by brain injury and opioid overdose would look like if it was grounded in love? Intervention is needed for those affected by respiratory depression, but not all interventions are created equal nor do they directly improve brain function and quality of life. In this webinar, presenters discussed brain injury and after care, current health system responses, and the practice of shared vulnerability and trusting partnerships for healing and creating a foundation for a different kind of overdose and drug poisoning response.