Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Health Canada approved the supervised injection site in Ottawa, recently. CBC News reported that the trailer was approved for the Shepherd’s of Hope in Byward Market (Trinh, 2017).
This nearly another unsupervised injection site at Raphael Brunet Park. The Government of Canada published a press release on the importance of harm reduction measures such as supervised injection sites.
Volunteers in Ottawa have said that this supervised injection site is in the centre of the opioid crisis in Ottawa.
The trailer is open 24/7 and stocked with clean needles and naloxone kits. At the moment, the trailer is used for the injections but in the future could be used for drugs users who smoke their substance.
The federal government in a press release said, ‘Supervised consumption sites are an important harm reduction measure and part of the Government of Canada’s comprehensive, collaborative, compassionate and evidence-based approach to drug policy,”
There are a total of eight injection stalls within the trailer for clean drug use by users. The press release continued, “International and Canadian evidence shows that, when properly established and maintained, supervised consumption sites save lives and improve health without increasing drug use or crime in the surrounding area.”
The harm reduction trailer is at the corner of Murray Street and King Edward Avenue. There were 10 overdoses within 24 hours in Ottawa in this part of the city.
The Inner City Health of Ottawa is the government arm responsible and equipped for the “training and hiring the nurses and social workers who will staff the injection trailer.”
For governmental permission for illicit substances with the trailer, the executive director for the group, Wendy Muckle, said, “We had to show what measures we would take to prevent the trafficking of illicit drugs inside the trailer … and how we would make sure clients were safe and secure and staff were safe and secure.” It is a 24/7 trailer.
Inside of the trailer, there have been 50 nurses and social workers hired and trained in the possibility of an overdose, as well the trailer has clean needles and naloxone kits on site.
References
Trinh, J. (2017, November 6). Health Canada approves supervised injection trailer at Ottawa shelter. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/sanctioned-supervised-injection-site-trailer-shepherds-of-good-hope-overdose-1.4389413.