March 7, 2024
Solutions exist in culturally competent health care, safer supply, and community connection, experts say.
Due to the toxic drug crisis and later the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy for First Nations people in British Columbia decreased by 7.1 years between 2015 to 2021.
The largest drop happened between 2019 and 2021 when life expectancy shortened 5.8 years, says Dr. Nel Wieman, chief medical officer at the First Nations Health Authority. Wieman is Anishinaabe from Little Grand Rapids First Nation.
The unregulated toxic drug supply is the leading cause of the decrease, with First Nations people “vastly overrepresented” in toxic drug deaths, Wieman says.
Read More: https://thetyee.ca/News/2024/03/08/First-Nations-Life-Expectancy-Has-Plummeted/