Safe injection sites still a year away from setting up in Ottawa

Those in need of a supervised injection site located in Centretown will need to wait for at least another year.

The Centretown Community Health Centre and Somerset West Community Health Centre located on Cooper Street and Eccles Street respectively, are both looking to hold staff and community consultations about safe injection sites within the next year, but are still only in the early stages of planning for possible sites.

Simone Thibault, executive director at CCHC, said they’ve held discussions with the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, which will likely be the first to host a supervised injection site in Ottawa. It could open as early as this fall, pending Health Canada’s approval of a special exemption to ensure staff and clients would never face drug possession charges.

“Consultations will need to be done with the community and staff so that we know what works best and what makes sense for our area and Centretown, and to ensure that a supervised injection site will integrate well with our other programs,” said Thibault.

Currently, the centre’s staff is conducting strategic planning exercises that could help, but separate consultations will need to be done. When those will happen have yet to be determined, though, according to Thibault. She said opening a site is the right thing to do, but it will require time and looking at current resources to figure out exactly how to do it.

CCHC is also embarking on major renovations this year, so Thibault says that they will not entertain running a new program until those are finished. It will likely take more than a year.

“This is a necessary project, though,” says Thibault. “It is just a question of how and when.”

Valérie Levert-Gagnon, communications officer at the centre, said they will review the results of Ottawa Public Health’s recent survey on harm reduction to help inform their next steps. The centre will also keep working together with their partners, including the Drug Users Advocacy League Ottawa and the Campaign for Safe Consumption Sites.

Meanwhile, the Somerset West centre is not yet actively planning for a supervised injection site either.

But Anne Christie Peeter, manager of addictions counselling and health promotion at SWCHC, said its board of directors has passed a motion to explore and expand the centre’s harm-reduction program and to look into having a supervised injection site.

“We are still in the exploratory stages and much further behind in the process than (Sandy Hill) is. We are interested in looking at what the model for a supervised injection site might look like,” said Peeter. “But having a site would definitely be the next logical step for our harm reduction program here.”

The centre is also planning to conduct consultations with the staff and management as their next step.

Safe injection sites have been a hot topic in recent years due to the rising number of drug overdoses in Canada. These sites are designed to reduce harm from public drug use by providing a safe, medically-supervised and hygienic environment for individuals to come and use illicit drugs. Some centres may also offer additional or other types of services to help these individuals while attempting to recover them from their addiction.

Last week, Metro News Ottawa cited a recent study saying Ottawa should aim to have at least two supervised injection sites. The study, conducted by researchers and physicians at St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto, found that while only one site would be cost-effective for the city, the optimal number would be two to provide the maximum health benefits for drug users.

Thibault agreed, saying that two to four would be ideal because Ottawa is so large geographically. It would provide easier access to users if there were more of them located in different parts of the city.

She added that that creating more but smaller-scaled sites may be ideal.

“These would not be stand-alone sites, they would be well-integrated and an enhancement of other services already provided,” said Thibault. “Typically, users would be a part of other programs run by the health centre. It’s probably not noticeable, but these users already come and go to these centres, now they’d also coming to be supervised while they use.”

Thibault said supervised injection sites are a method to ensure users as well as the community stay safe.

“This is a vulnerable section of society. It is important to build a trusting relationship with them and open conversation. A supervised injection site is only one part of the holistic care that users will receive,” she said.

The city agrees. In June, the Ottawa Board of Health voted 9-2 in support of opening supervised injection sites in the city. This means Ottawa could soon join the likes of Vancouver, which opened its first site 13 years ago and is still the only Canadian city to have done so.