Pubdate: Fri, 23 Sep 2016
Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3775
Author: Matt Kieltyka
Page: 10

MORE SAFE INJECTION SITES ON WAY

Health officials hope to help Downtown Eastside

Even with Insite, demand for new supervised injection sites remains
highest in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Vancouver Coastal Health
says.

The health authority announced this week it is preparing applications
for two new supervised injection sites in that community in response
to the British Columbia's epidemic of overdose deaths.

Chief Medical Officer Patricia Daly hopes that eight more supervised
consumption spaces - approximately half of Insite's capacity - split
between the DTES Mental Health and Substance Use drop-in centre (528
Powell St.) and the Heatley Community Health centre (330 Heatley St.)
will be up and running early next year if approved by Health Canada.

"We've chosen the sites based on where we're seeing the majority of
overdose deaths occurring, where we know there is the most demand,"
Daly told media on Thursday. "We've long heard from the community that
we need to offer supervised injection services in additional locations
aside from Insite. Even though those locations are within blocks of
Insite … they meet a need we know exists in those neighbourhoods."
Daly said VCH plans to apply for additional supervised injection
sites, some outside the DTES, next year but didn't want to delay the
arduous application process any further for the first two sites when
lives could be saved.

As of August, 488 people in British Columbia have died from accidental
drug overdoses this year, the majority linked to the presence of
fentanyl in their drugs.

Of the 532 calls where B.C. Ambulance Service responders administered
naloxone - a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose -
between April and August, 42 per cent were in the DTES, Daly said.

"We know that if people inject alone, particularly in a private
residence, they are more likely to die because their overdose is not
witnessed," Daly said. "Part of our strategy is to offer these
services in other locations and other neighbourhoods because people
may not wish to travel all the way to Insite when they're going
through withdrawal and they need to inject drugs."

VCH plans to work closer with peer and neighbourhood groups to respond
to overdoses that occur outside injection sites.

"Supervised injection sites will help one part of the population, but
we don't anticipate that every injection of every drug users will
occurring in a supervised injection site," she said. "It's not our
only strategy."

VCH plans to formally file applications for the Powell and Heatley
sites by the end of October, after conducting mandatory engagement
with stakeholders in the neighbourhood.
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MAP posted-by: Matt