New technology based devices aim to save lives in the DTES
A not for profit organization called Brave Technology in Vancouver BC has created three products to increase safety for drug users. These include an app for cellphones, a safety button that can be installed in residences for vulnerable individuals to alert staff help is needed, and a sensor for washrooms that detects when a person has entered the space but has stopped moving.
For those who are drug users, these three products address the need for anonymity while working to reduce the isolation that too often leads to a fatal overdose.
Brave Technology, in their own words “make tools that detect overdoses and activate life-saving community response, whenever and wherever people use drugs. … building a world where every overdose is detected and reversed.” Vancouver Coop Radio talked with those behind these inventions and explores why it’s vital to expand accessible and free WiFi into the DTES.