The Somerset West Community Health Centre said Wednesday it has opened a new temporary overdose prevention site after receiving approval from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.
According to the health centre, the site is a temporary and smaller version of a supervised injection site. The site can be set up quickly to help reduce what the centre is calling a “growing number of opioid-related overdose deaths.”
The SWCHC’s overdose prevention site will have four stations and operate within an existing space at the Eccles Branch. It will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. This temporary site is different from the centre’s planned permanent site, which will have six stations in a renovated permanent space.
“Overdose prevention sites provide people who use drugs with a safer space to use drugs,” the centre wrote in a release. “People bring drugs they have previously-obtained. They inject under the supervision of staff trained to revive them in the event of an overdose. Staff provide new syringes and other equipment used for injecting drugs.”
The site will be located at 55 Eccles St. in the current needle exchange and safer inhalation room at the centre. The site will provide:
- Supervised injection
- Harm reduction supplies, including disposal of used supplies
- Naloxone
- Oral and intranasal drug consumption
- Fentanyl test strips as a drug checking service
- Referrals to support and treatment
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“We are in an overdose health crisis. People in Somerset West are dying,” said Dawn Lyons, director for family and community health and harm reduction. “Permission to run this temporary overdose prevention site will allow SWCHC to use an existing room to start watching over people injecting. This room will save lives.”
The health centre believes that this will have no effect on the current operations of the location and that those who will use the site will be the same people who already use the centre’s drop-in services.
According to the SWCHC, clients use drugs in spaces that do not feel safe to them, including public washrooms, alleys, parks or doorways. They avoid being observed, are most often alone, may not have access to clean needles and may be rushed while they are using.
According to the centre, overdose is more likely and more often fatal under these conditions and the lack of a safe space to inject drugs in the Somerset Ward has resulted in an increase in opioid overdose incidents in the area.
“This has been and continues to be a concern and this site allows an environment where lives can be saved,” said Carole Sinclair, manager of harm reduction at the centre. “This is a facility that has oversight with the Ministry of Health with trained professionals and we know it saves lives.”
According to Sinclair, consultations held by the centre discussing the site have seen a positive reaction from members of the community.
“We’re so grateful for the support of our community,” said Sinclair. “It’s overwhelming.”
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