A Victoria carpenters’ union is offering naloxone kits and training to its members in an effort to address the disproportionate impact of the toxic-drug crisis on construction-industry workers.
The Carpenters’ Regional Council in Victoria is distributing the opioid overdose-reversing kits from its Quadra Street office and providing a brief training on the spot to any interested members.
The construction industry has been hit hard by the crisis. The Health Ministry said last year that of deaths due to toxic drug poisoning where someone’s job was known, nearly 20 per cent of those who died worked in the trades, transport or as equipment operators.
“We’ve known for a long time now that our industry, the broader construction industry, has been under siege from this toxic drug issue,” said Matt Carlow, union representative of the Carpenters’ Regional Council in Victoria.
Carlow said the union wants to remove barriers for workers to access kits by handing them out from the office, where many come to ask about new jobs and seek answers to other industry questions.
When a member comes in for any reason, Carlow said, he starts a conversation about naloxone kits and training to see if members are interested.
“We want them to go out there and have the potential to be a hero, to put it plainly. And having one of these kits is an important thing, given how hard our industry has been hit by the opioid crisis and the toxic drug crisis,” Carlow said.
The kits are provided to the union by Construction Industry Rehab Plan, a non-profit that provides mental health and substance-use services to the B.C. and Yukon construction industry. The group’s goal is to get a naloxone kit “in every hand.”
The union has given out about 15 to 20 kits so far, Carlow said.
Rory Kumala, CEO of the Vancouver Island Construction Association, said the initiative will add to the resources available to people working in the industry.
“I think it’s an expanded effort that our sector acknowledges that we have a very similar demographic to those that are afflicted,” Kumala said, emphasizing that the industry is not driving the toxic drug crisis, but is feeling the effects of a social crisis spilling over into the industry.
The construction association received a provincial grant last year to expand its Tailgate Toolkit project aimed at preventing toxic drug poisonings in the construction industry.
The project provides on-site and virtual talks, training for site and company leaders, an industry support group and region-specific resource guides for workers in the industry.
The latest available statistics on B.C.’s illicit drug toxicity deaths show that nearly seven people are dying each day. Of the 211 deaths in January, 77 per cent were male and 69 per cent were between the ages of 30 and 69. Fifty-five per cent of deaths occurred in private residences.
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