A mobile methadone clinic is up for sale in Halifax as increased investments in overdose and addiction services have removed the need for the once-critical service.
Management of the Halifax clinic is hoping that whoever buys the van can also use it to help others.
Meanwhile, Friday marks the last day of service for the mobile clinic. It’s a time to reflect on how the van came to hit the road.
Just a few short years ago, hundreds of people within the Halifax Regional Municipality were waiting to access opioid addiction treatment.
The long waiting list left harm reduction agencies, like Direction 180, turning people away who were in desperate need of help.
“Back in 2012 and 13, over 300 people were waiting six months to three years for treatment. People that were calling were desperate, hopeless and their lives were decompensating,” said Cindy MacIsaac, the director of Direction 180.
READ MORE: Community methadone clinic finds new home in Halifax
Searching for a way to address the needs of the community, a mobile outreach program was launched in 2013.
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“It increased accessibility in communities and made it easier for people to access treatment,” MacIsaac said.
A national opioid overdose crisis has led to increased provincial funding for drug treatment and addiction across the country.
The impact of those investments is being felt on the front lines of harm reduction.
“Given the resources that have been invested into opioid treatment, the need for the mobile has been outgrown because we are no longer in need of having to find other resourceful and creative ways to get people treated,” MacIsaac said.
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Treatment has the ability to save people’s lives who otherwise may feel like they have nowhere to turn.
“In 1990, I was fortunate enough to go into a pilot project for methadone and here I am today and without it, I honestly don’t believe I would be here,” Diane Bailey said.
Bailey went on to recover from her addiction and now runs Mainline Needle Exchange, a harm reduction organization based out of Halifax.
Her lived experience with both addiction and recovery gives her a unique perspective on how crucial access to treatment can be.
“Harm reduction works, opioid assisted treatment, it works, and beside myself, there are multiple people that I know this has saved their lives,” Bailey said.
According to the Medical Examiner for Nova Scotia, 65 people died in 2017 from probably acute opioid toxicity.
MacIsaac hopes the former outreach mobile will be purchased out of a desire to serve the community in some way.
“My hope is that it would be purchased by somebody who could use it to do great work like we did. It would make a great mobile overdose prevention site, if someone were interested, expand access to opioid treatment in another rural community,” she said.
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