People wait for a hot meal and backpack full of warm winter essentials outside the Salvation Army Community Resource Centre(Colton Mckee/ CHATNewsToday)

By Tiffany Goodwein

‘Mentally it’s been horrible,’ Pandemic taking toll on city’s vulnerable

Nov 21, 2020 | 5:13 PM

MEDICINE HAT,AB- On a frigid Friday evening, a line forms outside the Salvation Army, where bags of warm winter essentials, like gloves, toques and fresh socks are being distributed. The items, an aide for those sleeping rough or those with housing but little money to spare for essential items.

The backpack initiative is part of the Salvation Army’s Hope in the City Campaign. A total of 203 backpacks were handed out.

“People don’t always have the stuff they need. We have people in Medicine Hat that don’t have a home so we want to provide as much as we can for them, we want to make them as comfortable as we can, and be there just to give them some hope,” said Pastor Lorenda Dale of the Salvation Army.

For the city’s vulnerable, the pandemic has meant restrictions resulting in some out in the cold for longer periods of time. Hot meals, for much of the pandemic, have been served outside at places like The Mustard Seed and The Salvation Army.

Pre-pandemic their doors would be open for hours for people to sit inside and eat while getting some hope and encouragement from staff, volunteers, and friends every day.

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“Our resource centre is really a community hub. It was not unusual to have 50, 60 people at our centre anytime in the afternoon, waiting for supper having a coffee, playing a game together, just talking , getting a bit of advice sometimes, just to have someone to listen to and that’s really disappeared it’s pretty much non-existent now,” Dale said.

The lack of community during the pandemic has taken a devastating toll on some of the city’s vulnerable.

“Mentally its’ been horrible, its’ made things a lot worse, not having places to go just during the day to stay warm it is just impossible,” said one man CHAT NEWS spoke to.

The isolation caused by the pandemic has led some to turn to drugs.

“ We’ve heard many stories of people using more drugs because they don’t have a place to come to, they aren’t able to be around their friends, they are isolated, they are alone. We’ve seen a lot of that happening. We’ve heard a lot of stories from people coming in saying their friends have really gone downhill,” said Dale.

One man living on the streets told CHAT News that he knows of a number of people who have died by overdose, the past few months in the city.

“In the past few months, at least five or six.” he said

“People are just being disconnected from each other with this distancing thing and stuff,” the man said.

The most recent quarterly statistics from the province show 25 apparent and unintentional fentanyl poisoning deaths in the South Zone from April to June compared to just six the same quarter last year.

Province-wide 284 people died from an apparent unintentional fentanyl-related poisoning from April to June, compared to 130 in the previous quarter.

The report from the province highlighted the impact of the pandemic on opioid-related deaths.

“Beginning in March 2020, the number of harms associated with opioid use began to increase significantly, reaching record levels not previously seen, in conjunction with a decrease in the utilization of treatment and harm reduction services,” the Opiod Response Surveillance report read.

The report estimates that on average, in the first six months of 2020, 2.5 individuals died every day in the province as a result of unintentional opioid poisoning.

The impact of the pandemic has agencies doing what they can to serve the city’s vulnerable while abiding by restrictions.

The Salvation Army continues to serve clients hot meals outside. At times they open their doors for people without a home to warm up. However, unlike the dozens of people that would usually be allowed in, only seven to 12 people are allowed inside at one time, due to pandemic restrictions.

Meanwhile, The Mustard Seed is working to complete their kitchen renovation. Once it is complete, the hope to move their hot meal program inside, to give people a warm place to eat at their location on Allowance Avenue.