Vancouver Coastal Health is looking to increase supervised injection services across Vancouver. The health authority’s Downtown Eastside Second Generation Health System Strategy identifies several areas for expansion, with the overall goal being, “the creation of more extensive and intentional harm reduction services,” according to an introductory letter from Laura Case, chief operating officer for the Vancouver community at VCH.

For many people, the Internet is the first place to turn for answers about illness and mental health issues. With quotes from Dr. Erin Michalak, a VCHRI researcher.

“Our experience in Vancouver shows these sites do not increase crime, do not divert drugs, and do not threaten the safety of neighbourhoods.” Co-written by Dr. Patty Daly, chief medical health officer at VCH, Dr. John Carsley, a medical health officer at VCH, and Dr. Perry Kendall, provincial health officer of BC.

Vancouver Coastal Health is undertaking a massive plan to remake health services in the Downtown Eastside to get rid of duplication built up over the years by layers of agencies providing health care to 10,000 people struggling with significant mental and physical health problems. With quotes from Rolando Barrios, a senior medical director who is heading up the effort to create what is being called a second-generation strategy.

“(VCH’s) pioneering safe injection facility Insite earned its annual exemption form the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to continue offering harm reduction services for people addicted to heroin this week.”

Vancouver Coastal Health will consider adding supervised drug injection services to existing health clinics, if Health Canada grants an exemption to a downtown facility that has “illegally” operated an injection room for its registered clients since February 2002. With quotes from Dr. Patricia Daly, chief medical health officer for VCH.

There were six fatal shootings by police in B.C. in 2014, up from just one in 2013; all the deceased had a mental illness or were having a mental health crisis. With mention of VCH’s Car 87 service.

Health Canada has issued new guidelines that will allow the use of fecal transplants outside of clinical trials in some conditions, opening the door to more widespread use of a procedure inaccessible enough that some people are seeking do-it-yourself tutorials online. With quotes from Dr. Theodore Steiner, a VCHRI researcher.

Emotional eating can be passed from parents to their children. So how can you break the cycle if you’re struggling with your own food issues? Helen Yeung, a registered dietitian at Vancouver Coastal Health, says you need to teach children how to be detectives so they can recognize the difference between hunger and emotional needs¬—in other words, not seeing food as catch-all for filling any void.

“I don’t have a great problem with the unnecessary renaming of (VCH’s) St. Mary’s Hospital. However, I wish the provincial government first had dealt with the real health care issues facing the Coast, such as hospital over-crowding or the lack of adequate supports for the elderly.”