The province announced on Tuesday that a temporary overdose prevention site has been approved for the city of Hamilton.

The temporary site, organized by the Shelter Health Network in partnership with Hamilton Urban Core CHC will be located along Rebecca St. This is the first supervised injection site in Hamilton.

The approval has been met with one-time provincial funding of up to $116,300 for the 2018-19 funding year. The Rebecca St. facility will also include an area for three people at a time to inject “pre-obtained” drugs under the watch of a medical professional. It will also include a space where people can relax following injection.

In December 2017, the city of Hamilton and McMaster University conducted a study on the needs assessment and feasibility of supervised injection sites in Hamilton. They found that nearly 80 per cent of people who inject drugs would use a supervised injection site if they had access to it.

The study also found that of the one hundred and six individuals who participated in the study, a third of participants reported daily injection use in the past six months. Between January and October 2017 there were 70 confirmed and five probable deaths linked to drug overdose, compared to 41 during the same period the year before.

Based on these statistics, Ward 2 Councillor Jason Farr says that now is an important time to implement a supervised injection site within the city.

“The debates and conversations [around the topic] have been robust and really brought this very serious human health issue to the forefront,” said Farr. “That only helps in getting the message out that addictions affect us all and that the current methods of addressing them are clearly not as adequate as we would like.”

The province has said that supervised injection sites offer lifesaving support, referrals and access to primary care, social services, in addition to addiction and mental health treatment. There are currently seven sites running within Toronto and Ottawa, with one more organized to be open within the coming months.

Dr. Robin Lennox, a family physician associated with the Shelter Health Network and member of the Overdose Prevention Site Steering Committee says that the ultimate goal of the Rebecca St. facility is to create a safe, stigma-free environment where users can access harm reduction supplies and overdose response with the use of naloxone and oxygen.

“Our hope is certainly that the Overdose Prevention Site will help eliminate some of the stigma that users are currently experiencing in our community,” said Lennox. “With the creation of an Overdose Prevention Site, our community will be acknowledging the dignity of our users and their right to be kept safe and healthy.”

With new approval for a temporary site, there is an ongoing search for a place to put a permanent supervised injection location. The city of Hamilton is currently in conversation with hospitals about locating supervised sites at one of their locations.

By: Priscilla Ip

Many might be surprised to learn that Hamilton, the city that Mac students call home, is a hot spot for opioid prescriptions, overdoses and deaths.

Just last month, the city of Hamilton issued an online survey for Hamilton residents and workers about safe and supervised injection sites. This asked various questions about personal perceptions, community impacts and common concerns. I was made aware of this survey through friends on social media sites, as well as through class, and I was excited to hear that the city of Hamilton was working to address such a pressing public health concern.

Before I considered filling in the survey, I wanted to make sure that I was as informed as possible and decided to research more about the pros and cons of safe injection sites. I was surprised to find the amount of controversy surrounding this topic.

The main controversy surrounding injection sites is the misleading perspective that they encourage crime and drug use. This perception is in stark contrast with research that has proven that safe sites as a harm reduction measure can help save lives, reduce drug use and improve public safety. These safety objectives should be something that we can all support.

Part of the controversy stems from a lack of knowledge about what safe injection sites are and how they operate.

Nurses would be present at these sites where users would bring their drugs and be supplied with sterile injection needles and proper disposal methods. Not only would this reduce the rates of infections related to needle use and sharing, it would also bridge a gap between drug users and healthcare services, which could lead to greater access to care. If approved, Hamilton would be the second Canadian city to offer supervised injection sites, following Vancouver’s lead.

I was pleased to hear that the results of the survey show 84 per cent of the 1,690 respondents supported the idea of supervised injection sites in Hamilton. This is a symbol of positive change. The board of health is planning to conduct a study on the viability of local safe injection sites with a proposed partnership with a health program and institute at McMaster University. This could be the first step forward in addressing the national problem of increased opioid use and deaths related to overuse, as well as changing the public perceptions of these issues.

This issue is not only gaining local attention, but national actions are growing in number. Following a summit in Ottawa during the weekend of Nov. 19 that addressed Canada’s opioid crisis, Health Canada committed to issuing an update on its opioid action plan by February 2017. This summit also added pressure on the federal government to declare a national public health emergency.

Hamilton has among the highest number of opioid deaths in Ontario with a rate nearly double the provincial average. As McMaster students studying and living in Hamilton, we have a role to play in this community. We should educate ourselves on these issues and support actions to reduce risks and harms related to drug abuse.

Everyone is affected by the misuse of drugs in some way. You might know a friend or family member struggling with drug abuse, you might be a nursing student playing an active role in care or you might be experiencing addiction yourself. We cannot be complacent in believing drug use will always be a societal issue and that there is nothing we can do to promote health and safety.

We can’t ignore the research and reports showing not only the rise in rates of drug use, but also the escalating amount of deaths related to drug addictions. We can all be advocates to support measures that are being taken to address this national epidemic starting at a local scale, or even smaller: a university scale.

List of helpful resources:

Student Wellness Centre
Alternatives for Youth
Ontario Drug and Alcohol Helpline
SHEC