Victoria is facing a public-safety crisis

[CBH99]

Stop sending social services to OD calls. The problem will correct itself.

I hate to sound crass, but I totally agree.

On the one hand we all want a society that helps people when they fall down.

We all fall down at some points in our lives, some harder than others, but we all do...


But there comes a point where we, as a society, have gone too far in one direction or another - and there does need to be a correction.

Freeing up EMS resources by not responding to every single OD call would ease the immense burden EMS currently faces, it would also free up room & lessen waiting times in hospital Emergency Departments that are stretched to their limit across the country, and the problem would mostly correct itself in fairly short order.

Does that sound harsh or cruel? Yeah, it does.

But there aren't a lot of 'clean answers' to some of societies long term problems that don't require us to ask ourselves "Where do we as a society have to draw the line & force people to be accountable for their own choices?"

A child that accidentally consumes something and is overdosing isn't the same thing as an adult who consumes something deliberately & is on their 3rd OD in 3 months.

( When I worked in EMS that was a choice I personally had to make, as our dispatch system at the time had me mapped almost dead center of 2 CFS, both code. Instinctively I chose the CFS involving the kid.)

 

[CBH99]

Have no fear for Victoria public safety. Parliament is slapping more guns (semi-auto center fire) to the guns ban list on Bill C21. That will sort everything out.

Thank Goodness!

I knew the solution to knife crime & an abundance of street drugs was for big government to target hunters & farmers...

My fear for public safety has been abated

 

[lenaitch]

I hate to sound crass, but I totally agree.

On the one hand we all want a society that helps people when they fall down.

We all fall down at some points in our lives, some harder than others, but we all do...


But there comes a point where we, as a society, have gone too far in one direction or another - and there does need to be a correction.

Freeing up EMS resources by not responding to every single OD call would ease the immense burden EMS currently faces, it would also free up room & lessen waiting times in hospital Emergency Departments that are stretched to their limit across the country, and the problem would mostly correct itself in fairly short order.

Does that sound harsh or cruel? Yeah, it does.

But there aren't a lot of 'clean answers' to some of societies long term problems that don't require us to ask ourselves "Where do we as a society have to draw the line & force people to be accountable for their own choices?"

A child that accidentally consumes something and is overdosing isn't the same thing as an adult who consumes something deliberately & is on their 3rd OD in 3 months.

( When I worked in EMS that was a choice I personally had to make, as our dispatch system at the time had me mapped almost dead center of 2 CFS, both code. Instinctively I chose the CFS involving the kid.)

Not a bad system, so long as you can differentiate between someone who has stumbled and fallen for the first time (or inadvertently) and the frequent fliers.

 

[Brad Sallows]

It's not harsh or cruel. The people setting policy are basically turning a blind eye right now to everyone who isn't getting a timely diagnosis or treatment of a life-threatening illness. They're arguing over who pays and devising ways to headhunt from other countries (which don't need their medical practitioners?), while finding money for all sorts of other things they'd rather do.

 

[Quirky]

Not a bad system, so long as you can differentiate between someone who has stumbled and fallen for the first time (or inadvertently) and the frequent fliers.

Free unlimited consumption sites, with the knowing that healthcare won’t be there to save you, should thin out the herd quickly. You can’t save everyone, the wounded and sick members of the zebra herds get eaten by the lions.

 

[RedFive]

A child that accidentally consumes something and is overdosing isn't the same thing as an adult who consumes something deliberately & is on their 3rd OD in 3 months.

Three times in three months?

I responded to the same guy overdosing three times in a day, once. The first two times he came up fighting and we let him go, refusing medical care. The third, we fought back long and hard and took him by force to the hospital.

 

[mariomike]

Freeing up EMS resources by not responding to every single OD call would ease the immense burden EMS currently faces,

As long as they walk, or refuse service.

What's a C F S ?

 

[Halifax Tar]

Three times in three months?

I responded to the same guy overdosing three times in a day, once. The first two times he came up fighting and we let him go, refusing medical care. The third, we fought back long and hard and took him by force to the hospital.

Maybe we need to stop caring for adults who habitually stop caring about themselves.

 

[mariomike]

took him by force to the hospital.

Bet the nurses loved you for that.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Not a bad system, so long as you can differentiate between someone who has stumbled and fallen for the first time (or inadvertently) and the frequent fliers.

A clue is when the ambulance arrives and they address the patient on a first name basis.

 

[RedFive]

Bet the nurses loved you for that.

We assisted them in five point restraining this person to the bed then watched as they put him in a k-hole. I don't think he was much trouble after that.

 

[Quirky]

Maybe we need to stop caring for adults who habitually stop caring about themselves.

Can we apply this to all facets of society and not just ODs?

 

[GK .Dundas]

Knew one drunk when I worked the Air Canada building who according to the Paramedics held the record in Winnipeg for Ambulance rides in year. He claimed on the order of 400.
And he'd try and assault the ER staff on arrival.

 

[quadrapiper]

Not a bad system, so long as you can differentiate between someone who has stumbled and fallen for the first time (or inadvertently) and the frequent fliers.

And could we please get a robust residential mental-health system back in play?

Short form: take measures to declutter the downtown population, provide "outs" of one kind or another for marginal/striving/harmless individuals, target actively harmful/antisocial behaviours, clear the white picket fence conformists and moralists out of policy, and then deal with the hard core of determinedly problem individuals that're left over.

Long form, without imagining this addresses everything, in no particular order, coming from someone who lives just north of and works in downtown Victoria and would really like the city of even ten years ago back, please...

• Legalize sex work, and then don't regulate it into inaccessibility and unaffordability.
• More accessible housing. Get more rental spaces into the market, including by overriding municipal secondary suite bans and so on, in the same manner as the recent moves on missing middle and strata rentals.
• Transit. Reinvest in bus and rail, including lowering fares, and structure it to ensure that nobody needs a car in (say) the 13 municipalities to get from where the cheap housing is to where the jobs are.
• Drugs. Legalize and encourage innovation in mind alterants People will always want to get high/chill/tripped out, let's accept that and strip out the toxic supply and criminal issues, with the potential for someone coming up with "cleaner" options to provide the same outcome.
• Drug enforcement. Until then, forget drug enforcement. File it at the bottom of the priority list. Go after thieves and other property criminals with all the zeal and resources previously applied to drugs.
• Parks etc. Come up with something enforceable on approved uses for public spaces, then enforce it.
• Disorder versus unsightliness.Target misbehaviour versus lifestyle and aesthetics, and make space for non-damaging transients.
• Cost of housing: no it's not an investment.Render unenforceable those bylaws and municipal policies built to drive custom to local business, to preserve property values, to ensure conformity in neighbourhoods, or to present a "welcoming" face to people who don't live there (fence and setback restrictions; with the latter, if the goal is to preserve x unbuilt land, then make it a percentage-of-lot restriction).
• Pull youth off the street and into care, with an option to move far enough away that nobody will know them. Subset: provide indigenous-led care as an opt-in option.

 

[mariomike]

A clue is when the ambulance arrives and they address the patient on a first name basis.

We had one we let ourselves get so attached to my partner started crying when we walked in and, unexpectedly, found her dead. That's not supposed to happen.

 

[YZT580]

It's not harsh or cruel. The people setting policy are basically turning a blind eye right now to everyone who isn't getting a timely diagnosis or treatment of a life-threatening illness. They're arguing over who pays and devising ways to headhunt from other countries (which don't need their medical practitioners?), while finding money for all sorts of other things they'd rather do.

easy solution. Just fill in another use for MAID after all, those folks aren't worth saving anyways. (bitter)

 

[Brad Sallows]

No need to be bitter. Reducing end-of-life medical costs is one of the justifications openly cited to promote suicide. Once you cross that threshold, the only question is how long away end-of-life ought to be before you start giving people nudges.

 

[Booter]

No need to be bitter. Reducing end-of-life medical costs is one of the justifications openly cited to promote suicide. Once you cross that threshold, the only question is how long away end-of-life ought to be before you start giving people nudges.

I just went and looked through a couple studies on physician assisted suicide- none mentioned the “openly cited” justification of cost.

Reference? I’ve never seen it that I recall.

 

[Brad Sallows]

CBC.ca.

 

[mariomike]

We assisted them in five point restraining this person to the bed then watched as they put him in a k-hole. I don't think he was much trouble after that.

Good night nurse.