Red Deer's temporary Overdose Prevention Site (rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Sheldon Spackman

Uncertain Future

Premier’s comments spark concern over future of supervised consumption services in Red Deer

Jan 23, 2020 | 1:26 PM

The executive director of Turning Point, which operates Red Deer’s temporary Overdose Prevention Site (OPS), says she is disappointed to hear Premier Jason Kenney say the government may close or relocate supervised consumption sites in Alberta.

“More and more data confirms that the NDP drug sites have hit local communities with an increase in crime and anti-social behaviour,” Kenney said in a tweet on Wednesday. “We can’t ignore the social and economic impact.”

Stacey Carmichael with Turning Point says it’s especially disappointing to see these comments given the evidence that supervised consumption services are saving lives and increasing pathways to detoxification, treatment, and housing.

“I’m not necessarily surprised, but it’s quite vague at this time on what their plans are, so I’m not sure exactly how that’s going to impact Red Deer,” she notes.

Turning Point was hoping to open its new permanent supervised consumption site at 5233 54 Avenue last fall. Those plans were put on hold, however, after the UCP government announced a freeze on SCS funding pending a review.

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“We hope that’s still a go,” she says. “We had the plans drawn up, we were preparing to put everything out to tender, and we got as far as asbestos abatement when things were put on hold. So we’re hopeful we can continue with our original plan.”

Carmichael says their goal is to provide a full spectrum of services by moving into a permanent site that the community knows is needed.

“We know that folks who access supervised consumption services often don’t have any connections at all to mainstream health services,” explains Carmichael. “We would be welcoming health providers, mental health providers, addictions treatment options, making sure that people had access to housing supports. I was just talking to the Virtual Opioid Dependency Program folks yesterday about putting in tele-health services into our programs, so people would have immediate access to the gold standard of opioid replacement treatment options.”

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In addition, Carmichael says they would be able to provide enough capacity to meet all the overdose prevention needs in the community.

“There would also be access to showers and laundry facilities and things that folks who are experiencing homelessness really need,” adds Carmichael. “We work along with a coalition of community partners, so the planning and the research, all of that has taken place, not in isolation, but along with our community partners.”

Carmichael says they are seeing an average of 165 visits per day at the temporary OPS, which opened Oct. 1, 2018. It has clearance to remain open until March 31, 2020. There were 5,076 visits in the month of December from 243 unique individuals.

“We would be able to increase the capacity (with a permanent site) which would result in further reduction in needle debris, public drug consumption and overdoses,” says Carmichael. “It would also just give folks a place to be and more opportunities to get connected. In December alone, the staff responded to 78 overdoses, so people are still overdosing in our community daily and this site is reversing those overdoses and has had no fatalities.

“If we close the site, all of that goes back into the community,” she added, “and probably some of those 78 suspected overdoses would have ended in a fatality.”

Carmichael acknowledges there is social disorder in the community, but supervised consumption can’t be pegged as the root cause of the social issues associated with drug use and poverty and homelessness.

Carmichael concludes she’s optimistic that all of the evidence available to the government will be taken into perspective.

“These services are not causing a problem, they’re an evidence-based response to a problem,” she explains. “To take away these services is negligent. People will die.”

A report from the province’s review into supervised consumption services is expected to be released in the next few weeks.