Pubdate: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC) Copyright: 2003 Vancouver Courier Contact: http://www.vancourier.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474 Author: David Carrigg SAFE INJECTION SITE OLD HAT AT DR. PETER CENTRE The Portland Hotel Society isn't the only group in the running to open a safe drug injection site in the city. Both the Dr. Peter Centre and the B.C. Persons With Aids Society are also being considered by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority to operate supervised shooting sites. The Dr. Peter Centre has operated a small "harm reduction room" at its site in St. Paul's Hospital since April 2002. Executive director Maxine Davis said the health authority contacted her about two weeks ago asking the centre to share its experience operating a safe injection site and to submit an application. In August, the centre is expected to move into a custom-built $10-million building at the corner of Thurlow and Comox, which could accommodate a larger injection site. The centre helps 150 clients who are HIV-positive and live in poverty, many with mental illness and addiction problems, but only 21 clients currently use the injection room. The room was established after nursing staff at the centre complained about providing participants with needles, only to send them outside to shoot up. Nurse Wil Stewart said users used puddle water to mix with heroin, or in some cases, their own blood, which is mixed with cocaine powder then reinjected. "From a nursing point of view, the idea of us providing participants with the stuff to shoot up then seeing them go outside to, in some cases, overdose was unconscionable," said Stewart. Davis contacted the Registered Nurses Association of British Columbia to seek permission to operate the site, where nurses now sit with the users while they inject, teaching them how to care for their veins and avoid overdoses and health problems. The centre deems the harm reduction room a success because the incidence of abscesses among users has decreased and some have agreed to go into detox. Once the users are high, they open up to nursing staff, which helps the nurses learn about the clients' condition. Davis said the proposed safe injection site at the new Dr. Peter Centre would only be used by participants in centre programs, though the number of participants will increase to about 200 when the new centre opens in August. Davis, who is on the health authority's safe injection site advisory committee, has also allowed one of her nurses, Patti Zettel, to be seconded to the authority to help develop protocols surrounding safe injection. The Portland Hotel Society has also applied to the health authority for funding to operate its injection site. The society has already built a two-room, six-stall demonstration facility in the 100 block of East Hastings at a cost of $30,000. The health authority has held discussions with the B.C. Persons With Aids Society about opening a site, but society director Ross Harvey declined to comment. Clay Adams, spokesman for the health authority, said the Portland, Dr. Peter Centre and Persons With AIDS Society are the only groups being considered to operate safe injection sites. Adams said the authority will decide which site, or sites, to fund by the end of this month, then advise Health Canada. He predicted the city will likely have the first health-authority backed safe injection site in Canada up and running by May. - --- MAP posted-by: Alex