Pubdate: Sat, 29 Aug 2015
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Elizabeth Payne
Page: A11
Cited: Nurses for Supervised Injection Services: http://www.nursesforsis.com/

NURSES PUSHING FOR LEGAL INJECTION SITES

Coalition Wants Matter on Agenda During the Federal Election Campaign

A coalition of nurses and nursing students is hoping to put injection 
sites on the agenda during the federal election campaign.

The group called Nurses for Supervised Injection Services is 
encouraging others to vote for parties that support the creation of 
more sites throughout Canada.

The Conservative Party, which has fought Canada's only supervised 
injection site for drug users in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, is 
the only one of the major parties that does not support the expansion 
of such sites. The Conservative government passed a law that 
supporters of the sites say creates barriers for communities opening 
injection sites similar to Vancouver's.

Marilou Gagnon, an associate professor of nursing at the University 
of Ottawa, said nurses are generally supportive of supervised 
injection services because they "really understand why they are 
important and should be implemented." There are more than 280,000 
registered nurses in Canada.

She said the aim of the campaign is to "mobilize the voices of nurses 
and nursing students" to draw attention to the importance of the 
issue during the campaign. It is also to remind nurses to "put their 
nursing hats on" when they vote, she said.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has said he wants such sites across 
Canada. The NDP's Thomas Mulcair has also said he supports supervised 
sites, as have Green party and Bloc Quebecois leaders.

A law recently passed by the Conservatives could make it more 
difficult to open such services in Ottawa and elsewhere, however.

Despite that, Luc Cormier, nursing team leader at the Sandy Hill 
Community Health Centre's Oasis program, said the organization is 
preparing an application for an exemption that would allow one to 
open in Sandy Hill, as part of a range of services provided as part 
of the Oasis program.

The centre already offers a needle exchange, opiate substitution and 
other services to drug users, and Cormier said a supervised injection 
service would just be one more aspect of the program.

"The model we are looking at would be integrated within the current 
existing structure we offer," he said.

Cormier said all the political and media attention focused on 
Vancouver's Insite and supervised sites have made it a bigger issue 
than it should be.

Adding such a service in Ottawa, he said, would have a minimal impact.

"We see it as an additional service we owe to our clients to be able 
to provide for them."

The centre has begun consultation and other work to prepare to apply 
for an exemption to federal drug laws to allow such a service to 
operate. Among barriers it has to overcome first is that both Ottawa 
Mayor Jim Watson and Police Chief Charles Bordeleau oppose injection sites.

Sandy Hill is not the only group considering applying for one in 
Ottawa, which has a high HIV transmission rate, linked, in part, to 
unsafe injection drug use.

Gagnon, meanwhile, says the coalition of nurses pushing for 
supervised injection services is grassroots and represents nurses 
working on the front lines across the country. So far, the coalition 
has 400 members, Gagnon said, but she expects that to grow as the 
information campaign gets under way.

"There is really strong support (for this) within the nursing 
community, it is pretty unanimous."

Major nursing organizations intervened at the Supreme Court of Canada 
in the Insite case and took action to oppose Bill C-2, which creates 
barriers to opening such sites and has since become law.

Gagnon noted that drug users will find a place to inject if 
supervised sites are not available. By offering a place that is clean 
in conjunction with other services, the health system has a better 
chance of helping them.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom