City to increase harm reduction

By Rosa Saba

Centretown Community Health Centre is one of five locations in Ottawa that could be home to harm-reduction vending machines providing clean needles, pipes and biohazard containers to drug users in Ottawa.

Ottawa Public Health is in the development stages of a pilot project to bring in five dispensing units, according to Kira Mandryk, the supervisor of Ottawa’s harm reduction program. The machines would be placed outside existing safe equipment distributors. Users would access the machines with tokens or cards provided by the centres.

“One of the main gaps we keep hearing about is 24-hour service,” Mandryk said. “We’re starting with a pilot project… to monitor and research the initiative.”

Mandryk said high rates of Hepatitis C and HIV among drug users are among the reasons programs like hers are trying to increase harm reduction in Ottawa.

A report by Ottawa Public Health found the prevalence of Hepatitis C in Ottawa drug users was 63 per cent, and 13 per cent for HIV. This number is relatively stable, according to the report, meaning it isn’t really rising. But it isn’t necessarily falling either.

Simone Thibeault, executive director at Centretown Community Health Centre, said the machines would provide a service that users have been asking for.

“It’s got its limitations, but if it’s people we already serve, that we’re well connected with, then going to a machine off-hours to get it would still be a way of helping the people we currently serve,” Thibeault said. “We’ll explore any opportunity that will provide better access for people.”

Thibeault said Ottawa would need to explore some possible issues, including the possible effect of cold weather on the machines.

“There’s probably a lot of details to explore, but I think it’s important,” she said. “We know we need to get ahead.”

Ottawa Public Health has put out a request for quotes from manufacturers for the machines, which would be placed next to needle disposal units and provide information pamphlets.

Mandryk said she hopes the machines would be branded with up-to-date health messaging, so users can access the information they normally receive in person.

Dr. Mark Ujjainwalla, an addictions physician at Recovery Ottawa, has been a vocal opponent of harm reduction programs such as safe injection sites. Ujjainwalla said that while he supports the prevention of diseases spread by unsafe injection, he feels the real issue at hand is the fact rehabilitation is not covered by Canada’s healthcare system.

“What we need to do is develop a whole collaborative approach,” Ujjainwalla said. “They want help. The problem is, there’s no help.”

He said he takes issue with safe injection sites or needle dispensing programs being branded as the answer to drug issues.

“The will isn’t there from the treatment side to really explain to people and force the government to make a change,” he said.

Sean LeBlanc began recovering from addiction in 2010. On the road to recovery, he founded the Drug Users Advocacy League in Ottawa. He credits harm reduction with saving his life, but says he agrees rehabilitation centres are not financially accessible to the people who need them.

LeBlanc said accessing harm reduction services made him want to recover.

“The human interaction really, really helped,” he said. “Just that five or ten minutes of peace and good advice … was enough for me to want more.”

LeBlanc said he wants to see more peer distribution services as part of harm reduction, which he said would save money, make users more comfortable, and provide jobs for recently recovered people.

“You go and you access these services. You start to feel better about yourself, feeling more confident and maybe more willing to change,” LeBlanc said. “I consider harm reduction to be a major reason why I’m here right now.”