A year after Interior Health launched its mobile supervised consumption service in Kelowna, the numbers are in, showing over 26,000 people utilized the vehicle.

Staff says it reversed 47 overdoses and no deaths occurred at the unit between June 2017 and July 2018, which is a big success in the view of Danielle Cameron, the administrator for mental health and substance use.

"Twenty-six thousand visits is certainly high … it has confirmed the demand and that people who are wanting to use the service find that there's value in it," Cameron told Daybreak South's Chris Walker.

"It does give us pause to talk about and look at options moving forward."

The mobile unit — which is a converted RV — operates all week with services available in downtown Kelowna in the afternoon and in Rutland in the evening.

Cameron said people who access the unit are offered more than just a safe place to use and often build relationships with staff.

Through those relationships, 394 referrals were made to clients seeking support for housing, mental health and addiction and other services.

"We can say with that number of visits and amount of client engagement in the service that we are saving lives and helping people with addiction use more safely and engage with services in a new way," she said.

The mobile supervised consumption sites are a key part of Interior Health's action plan to address the ongoing opioid crisis and Cameron says it'll be talking with stakeholders to review the information collected over the past year and improve services in the future.