Pubdate: Fri, 20 May 2005
Source: Victoria News (CN BC)
Section: Weekend Edition
Copyright: 2005 Victoria News
Contact:  http://www.vicnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1267
Author: Don Descoteau

INSIGHTS GAINED ON EUROPEAN DRUG SITE TOUR

Helping addicted individuals down the road to wellness is something that 
takes an integrated approach.

That fact was driven home earlier this month for a group of Victoria 
professionals who travelled to Switzerland and Germany to check out the 
approach of safe injection facilities for potential application in Victoria.

Mayor Alan Lowe and Vancouver Island Health Authority chief medical health 
officer Dr. Richard Stanwick agree they were struck by the well-connected 
network of services available to battle the problem.

"Not only was there the supervised injection site, but housing was 
integrated into the same building, where people came down from their 
temporary accommodations and participated in the supervised injection site, 
which allowed for a greater period of contact," Stanwick said.

"From my perspective, you had probably greater opportunity for that 
interaction and as we heard from the participants, with greater interaction 
and relationship forming, (there was) the opportunity to give those 
individuals who wish to leave the drug scene the opportunity to do so."

In most of the handful of sites toured by the group, housing - already 
identified in Victoria as a key link to getting people back on track - was 
a critical part of the mix. Either short-term shelter beds similar to 
Streetlink or the Salvation Army, or longer-term accommodation such as that 
supplied by the Upper Room in Victoria were available for people who wanted 
help with their addictions.

The short-term beds, part of a range of social services provided in the 
city, were funded by the municipal government, while the more permanent 
beds were funded through federal government programs.

Most of the half dozen or so sites visited, most located in downtown 
business areas, featured client intake services, where people were put into 
the system. They had safe areas to ingest drugs of varying kinds, plus 
access to counselling, temporary housing and emergency health services. One 
site even had an industrial shop where people could get started on learning 
a trade.

Stanwick said witnessing the role social workers play in the continuum of 
care for addicts in the two areas was "an eye-opening experience." In many 
cases, they are the front line staff that deal with clients, police, health 
professionals plus housing and employment agencies.

"Social workers were the conduit that made things happen," Lowe said, 
noting they seemed to have built the trust of the police, the users and 
everyone in between.

The group, Lowe especially, came under fire in some circles for spending 
taxpayer money on a trip to Europe when the Vancouver supervised injection 
facility, Insite, has been operating successfully for more than two years.

Lowe and Stanwick, both of whom have visited Insite in Vancouver more than 
once, defended the roughly $3,000 per person cost of the trip. They said 
speaking directly to people involved with the sites, as well as those 
people who live and work nearby was more valuable than what has thus far 
been gleaned from Insite, which focuses primarily on providing safe 
injection facilities.

"We're actually hearing second-or thirdhand from Vancouver, when we're 
hearing about the experiences firsthand in the European countries," Lowe 
said. "Just to be in the city looking at the location and wandering around 
that neighbourhood, talking to the neighbours and businesses around these 
facilities, you have to experience that. If you didn't do that, you 
wouldn't understand the dynamics between the businesses and the facilities 
and their clients."

The two cities embarked upon their programs in the early 1980s. Citizen 
surveys there show less concern today over open drug use in the cities, the 
top issue 20 years ago along with traffic. Lowe said it is reportedly 20 
per cent of what it was before the programs started. Among the most 
valuable things gained on the trip, Stanwick said, were the contacts made, 
people who can be e-mailed or called at the drop of a hat with questions 
about experiences or approaches to specific problems.

Ironically, Lowe said the site which seemed to work best among the half 
dozen or so seen was located in the red light district of Frankfurt. 
Obviously, Victoria doesn't have such a section and in any event, the 
desire would be for a local facility to be more innocuous, like the ones 
located in downtown Bern and Frankfurt, he said.

Victoria city councillors were scheduled to hear a presentation on the 
findings yesterday (May 19).

Stanwick is due to produce a report for the VIHA board on the experience, 
the details of which will be shared with the city as it moves forward with 
the idea of creating similar facilities in Victoria.
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MAP posted-by: Beth