Harm Reduction and Substance Use Support

Find support near you

Naloxone Administration - Online Course

Learn more about Naloxone administration and overdose prevention through this online course by Toward the Heart, BCCDC Harm Reduction Services.

The course includes topics like identifying an overdose, how naloxone works, proper use of naloxone, and where to access resources.

In Good Company

We recruited 65 men (19-78 years old) with diverse backgrounds from across Canada, and asked them to submit photographs that illustrated their perspectives and experiences connecting with and supporting other guys. They were then interviewed over Zoom to narrate the stories and ideas behind their photographs.

Do these stories sound familiar to you?
The photos and quotes have been carefully selected to reflect common experiences and strategies that work.
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The Vancouver Recovery Club

The Vancouver Recovery Club provides help, hope, and services to alcoholics and addicts seeking relief and recovery from their addiction and disease. Services are available to individuals 18 years and older.

Services and Amenities Include:
  • 24 hour canteen, telephone, games room, free internet access, and peer to peer support
  • 12-step meetings for various support groups, including Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, and Narcotics Anonymous
  • Monthly clean and sober celebrations and events
  • Alcohol and drug counselling on Mondays from 4-8 pm
  • Free hair cuts approximately once a month
  • An annual membership fee of $60 is required, which goes to maintaining service levels

Location: 2775 Sophia Street, Vancouver
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 604-708-9955

Recovery Café

The Recovery Café offers support, resources, and a community of care along the entire continuum of a person's need for recovery assistance. It provides a welcoming environment that builds stability, strong relationships, and a sense of belonging. 

Services Include:
  • Facilitator-led recovery circles
  • One free meal each day they are open, as well as coffee, tea, and lattes
  • Access to a computer lab and telephones
  • Connection with Resource Specialists and access to additional resources and programs
  • Connection to other members through social and recreational activities

Guest Drop-In: Mon-Fri | 9:30 am - 4:30 pm
New Member Orientation: Wed | 1 pm - 2:30 pm
Location: 620 Clark Drive, Vancouver
Phone: 604-559-1771

SMART Recovery - Self-Management for Addiction

SMART Recovery (Self Management for Addiction Recovery) is a free support meeting group open to anyone seeking science-based, self-empowered addiction recovery. It provides the opportunity to connect with others going through the recovery process in a safe and welcoming environment.

Note: Registration is required for the Zoom link - though there is no obligation to attend 

Dates and Times: Wednesdays | 5 pm - 6  pm
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Phone: 778-836-9243
Email: [email protected]

The Families in Recovery (FIR) Program
FIR Square is a Combined Care Unit that provides care to women using substances and infants exposed to these substances. A multidisciplinary team will help you and your baby stabilize safely, provide care and support to you throughout your pregnancy, and support you in your transition back to your community after giving birth. 

Details:
  • Multidisciplinary team includes physicians, specialized nurses, a social worker, an addictions counsellor, a nutritionist, a recreational therapist, and an art therapist
  • Support for women wishing to stabilize or withdraw from drug use during pregnancy
  • Centralized nursery for babies in need of specialized treatment
  • Access to counselling and instruction to enhance critical life skills, parenting techniques, and coping mechanism
  • Alcohol and drug counselling, assessment, and support as well as a referral service as needed

Referrals:

Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society (WAHRS)

WAHRS works with the Aboriginal Community on different social issues such as homelessness, the right to remain in the DTES, fight for a voice to empower and educate ourselves, and practice harm reduction. A group of present and past Aboriginal drug users works to address issues like alcoholism and health epidemics like hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS that are of special concern to Indigenous people.

Date: Fridays | 1 pm
  • Registration starts at 12:30 pm
  • No meeting on Welfare Week
Location: The VANDU office
  • 380 East Hastings St., Vancouver
Brittany Graham: [email protected]
General VANDU Email: [email protected]

Family Connections

Family Connections provides mental health and substance use resources for families. The program is a part of Vancouver Coastal Health.

Types of Resources Includes (non-exhaustive list):
1. Mental Health Education
  • Family education courses
  • Skill development workshops
2. Family Support Groups
  • General mental health groups
  • Substance use groups
  • Other specific groups
3. Counselling
  • Free and low-cost counselling
  • In-person, online, and phone options available
  • Peer support
  • Counselling for individuals, partners, and groups
  • Professionals with specialties in mental illness, substance use, trauma services, services for Queer individuals, and more
4. Crisis Services
  • Drop-in services
  • 24/ crisis lines
  • Culturally sensitive crisis lines 
  • Services in various languages
5. Internet Resources
  • Peer support
  • Courses and workshops
  • Workbooks and other information
6. Help Finding and Accessing Resources

Avalon Recovery Society Women's Centre

This organization operates resource and drop-in centers for women recovering from addiction.

Resources Provided:
  • Group support through 12-step recovery programs and virtual peer support meetings 
  • Child care is available.
  • Educational workshops and a lending library
  • A clothing exchange
  • Monthly potluck/AA meeting at 6 pm on the second Saturday of each month in Vancouver.
    ​
Vancouver Meetings:
  • Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) daily
  • Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOA)
  • Overeaters Anonymous (OA)
  • Survivors of Incest Anonymous (SIA) 

Location: 5957 West Boulevard, Vancouver 
Phone: 604-263-7177

Molson Overdose Prevention Site
This overdose prevention site offers a range of services for inpatient and outpatient clients. Supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites are safe spaces where teams of trained staff monitor people who use illicit drugs while they use to help prevent and recover from overdoses.

These services include:
  • Monitoring and treatment in case of overdose
  • Harm reduction products and education
  • Referrals to social supports, addiction treatment centers, and health services
  • Needle exchange services including disposal of old needles and provision of clean needles, sterile water, and alcohol wipes
  • Health education to promote safer injection techniques
  • Take-home fentanyl test strips and private drug testing
  • Free Take Home Naloxone Kits (Narcan) and training to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses. ​

They are open 24 hours Tuesday to Thursday of cheque week.

Hours: Monday - Sunday | 7 am - 10:30 pm
Location: ​166 East Hastings Street (Alley) 
Phone: 604-360-8182 

Distro Disco

The Distro Disco is a mobile service that provides homeless individuals with:
  • Donated items such as clothing, toiletries, and camping equipment
  • Safer drug use accessories, such as foil kits
  • Safer sex equipment, including condoms
  • Disposable masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer in response to COVID-19
    ​
The service parks at three locations in Vancouver, please check the webpage for specifics. 
Donation drives are held on the first Saturday of the month.
​
All services are free and serve the Vancouver area.

Email: [email protected]

PHS Community Services Programs

PHS offers innovative and internationally recognized harm reduction programs and services that support the needs of the community by improving the quality of life and wellbeing of their clients.

Current Programs:
  • Community Managed Alcohol Program
  • Community Transitional Care Team
  • Douglas Street Community Supportive Recovery Program
  • Drug Checking
  • Insite and Onsite
  • PHS Food Program
  • Indigenous Health Services
  • Johnson Street Community Supervised Consumption Site
  • Multiple Overdose Prevention Sites
  • Needle Depot and Needle Exchange Van
  • Spikes on Bikes
    ​
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 604-683-0073

VanCity Overdose Prevention Society

The VanCity Overdose Prevention Society (OPS) provides harm reduction services, as well as advocates for change, offers employment and advancement opportunities, and promotes the end of addiction-related stigma. 

Current Services:
  • Provide a safe and clean environment to use drugs
  • Drug testing and harm reduction supplies
  • Housing and food support
  • Jobs for the DTES community
  • Clean and safe washrooms

Locations:
  • Indoor: 141 East Hastings St., Vancouver
  • Outdoor: 390 Columbia St., Vancouver
Hours: 7 days a week | 8 am - 10 pm
Email: [email protected]

Spikes on Bikes

The organization provides community assistance to prevent drug overdoses in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and West End neighborhoods, using specially outfitted bicycles. The service is available 24/7 to provide support when needed. 

Services Include:
  • Providing clean needles, Naloxone Kits (Narcan)
  • Overdose response
  • Alley safety patrol
  • Disposal of discarded syringes from public spaces
  • Education and support
​
Call for service.
DTES: West End:
  • Hours: Monday to Saturday  8 am – 2 pm 
  • Phone: 604-317-1315

​​Vancouver Aboriginal Health Society (VAHS)

Note: The Primary Care Clinic is currently at capacity and cannot welcome new patients at this time. Current patients can now book an appointment ONLINE with a doctor, nurse, social worker, or counsellor at vahs.cortico.ca

The health care services offered at this center are focused on providing basic healthcare treatments and specialty services to urban Indigenous people and residents of the Downtown Eastside on a first-come, first-served basis.

​This includes:
  • Family doctors providing basic healthcare treatments (except obstetrics)
  • Nursing services offered every day of the week
  • Specialty services such as psychiatry, mental health counselling, drug and alcohol counselling, diabetes education, and dietician counselling​

Services:
  • Free Take Home Naloxone Kits (Narcan) to use in reversing the effects of overdoses on drugs such as fentanyl, heroin, methadone, morphine, and oxycodone
  • Opioid antagonist treatment (OAT)
  • HIV counselling and care
  • Condoms and other safer sex equipment​

Note: Clients may be eligible for income assistance on a case-by-case basis. 

Hours:
  • Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri | 9 am - 5 pm
  • Wednesdays | 9 am - 8 pm
  • Saturdays | 9 am - 3 pm
  • *Closed weekdays | 12:30 pm - 1 pm*
Location: 449 East Hastings Street, Vancouver
Phone: 604-255-9766

​Harm Reduction Strategies and Services (HRSS)

The Harm Reduction Service Society (HRSS) aims to improve the health and well-being of individuals through various campaigns and programs.

These include:
  • Naloxone Programs, including free take-home kits and training on proper use of Naloxone
  • Prevention of drunk driving
  • Peer support programs
  • Needle distribution programs
  • Substitution therapies
  • Supervised consumption facilities
  • Outreach and education
    ​
 In addition, HRSS maintains a list of locations throughout British Columbia where safer sex products, drug use products, and naloxone can be purchased.

HRSS is part of the Harm Reduction Program at the BC Centre for Disease Control.
​
Location: 655 West 12th Ave, Vancouver
Phone: ​604-707-2400

First Nations Virtual Substance Use and Psychiatry Service

The First Nations Virtual Substance Use and Psychiatry Service provides individuals with access to specialists in addictions medicine and psychiatry as well as mental health and wellness care coordinators. The service is free for First Nations people living in BC.

Addictions Medicine Pathway:
  • Harm reduction support and treatment care planning
  • Relapse prevention planning
  • Information and referrals to treatment centres

Psychiatry Pathway:
  • Diagnosis support
  • Medication review
  • Treatment care planning

Care Coordination:
  • Counselling and therapy connections in your community (virtual or telehealth options for those individuals who are isolated and remote)
  • Scheduled check-ins 
  • Mental health and wellness support and connections to services as needed (such as Elders and Knowledge Keepers)​

Details:
  • Trauma-informed and culturally safe techniques
  • Referrals to the service are through trusted health and wellness providers, Knowledge Keepers, and Elders
  • Clients can also get referred through the Doctor of the Day service

Email: [email protected]
Doctor of the Day: 
  • To book an appointment: 1-855-344-3800
  • Monday to Friday | 9 am -  5 pm

Crystal Meth Anonymous
Crystal Meth Anonymous is a twelve-step fellowship for individuals wanting to stop using crystal meth and other substances. 

3 Main Components:
1. Meetings and Fellowship:
  • Attend regular meetings to learn from others and find support
  • Attend fellowship meals/coffee where participants discuss ideas and get to know others on a more personal level
2. Sponsorship and Step work:
  • Sponsors are also recovering addicts who offer guidance and suggestions
3. Service and Commitments:
  • Help other addicts by volunteering to provide services, such as making coffee, welcoming newcomers
  • Commitments to attend meetings regularly ​

Membership Eligibility:
  • Anyone looking to stop using crystal meth and other substances
  • No fee requirement, but individuals can donate if they desire
  • Regardless of religious background or beliefs

Vancouver Meetings:
  • Methbusters:
    • ​Wednesdays, 7:30 - 8:30 pm (in-person)
    • Qmunity - 1170 Bute St., Vancouver
  • METHod Out of Madness:
    • Sundays, 7 pm - 8 pm (in-person)
    • Vancouver Recovery Club - 2775 Sophia St., Vancouver
  • Crystal Clear Vancouver 
    • Thursdays, 7 pm - 8 pm
    • Virtual via Zoom

CMA Helpline: (855) METH-FREE | (855) 638-4373​

Mobile Access Point Vancouver (MAP Van)

MAP Van provides outreach services to street-based sex workers who trade in areas where there are few late-night services, and who are extremely vulnerable and often targeted.

Services Provided:
  • Staff drive the same route, providing beverages, snacks, and clothing, as well as essential health supplies such as condoms and clean needles
  • Referrals to emergency shelters, health care, and other supports
  • Women can request additional stops by phone
  • Staff members also provide emotional support and a compassionate, understanding ear 

Dates: 7 days/week | 365 days/year
Hours: 12 pm - 6 pm | 11 pm - 5 am
Phone: 604-720-5686
Email: [email protected]

PHS - Culture Saves Lives

Service:
  • Collaboration with Indigenous harm reduction leaders in a movement called Culture Saves Lives
  • Reconnecting or assisting people in making a first connection to traditional, spiritual, and cultural practices
    ​
Primary Programming:
  • Healing circles
  • Smudging
  • Drumming, singing, traditional dances, feasts, sweat lodge rituals, drum-making classes
  • Indigenous people's memorial rites, and feasts
  • Blends culture with harm reduction

Additional Services:
  • Peer support
  • Access to elder and traditional medicine
  • Connections to housing, food, and healthcare.

Hours: Monday - Friday | 10 am - 3 pm
Location: 9 East Hastings St., Vancouver
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 604-683-0073

​National Overdose Response Service (NORS)

 Program:
  • Phone-based overdose prevention program available to all Canadians as well as numerous Indigenous communities
  • Caller will be under the supervision of a virtual overdose supervisor for 15 to 30 minutes after using
  • Supervisor will contact 911 dispatch center if an overdose is suspected during the call

911 Emergency Response:
  • EMS response times can take 30 minutes in certain remote areas
  • Callers have the option to contact a friend or trusted individual in addition to dialing 911 for immediate assistance in the event of an overdose

Hours: Available 24/7
Phone: 1-888-688-6677

​PHS - Mobile Needle Exchange​

Service:
  • Brings harm reduction supplies to anyone requiring supplies and services across Vancouver
  • Picks up discarded needles
  • Provides information on safe use
  • Effort to stop the spread of HIV, HCV, and other diseases
    ​
Referrals provided:
  • Provide tens of thousands of annual referrals to health care, detox, treatment, and other programs
  • Effort to spread the sense of belonging and caring found in the DTES to other parts of the city
 
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1-604-657-6561
General Phone Numbers: 311 | 604-873-7000
Additional resources:
Alcohol and Drug Information and Referral Service 
Call 1-800-663-1441 to find resources and support