Although delays have prevented its use since the inauguration on July 21, the facility will be open to those who wish to inject substances, but not inhale them, an issue that prevents some from using the site.
Although administrative delays have kept the doors closed thus far, Sudbury’s supervised consumption site, called The Spot/La Place/Minoogawbi, will be opening on September 28.
In June 2020, Public Health Sudbury & Districts completed a study to determine “the need for and feasibility of implementing supervised consumption services in the City of Greater Sudbury. The city’s drug-related death rate is the highest per capita in the province in years. Earlier this year in May, PHSD has revealed that more than 100 people have died from an opioid-related overdose in 2021 and Sudbury continued to have the highest per capita death rate.
In May 2021, the city council voted unanimously in favor of a motion directing staff to exhaust all avenues in order to find a site for these services, and in June of that year the council selected the property near Energy Court as the designated location for a temporary site of supervised consumption.
The facility received no provincial funding, but received $1.094 million in funding from the City of Greater Sudbury, as well as $100,000 from Vale and $30,000 from Wheaton.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held on July 21, but the site has not yet opened its doors to customers. While staffing issues were an initial delay, there were also delays based on government approvals, including “the Ministry of Labor and Building Permits,” said Heidi Eisenhauer, executive director of Network ACCESS Networkthe organization that manages the site.
The site currently consists of two assembled trailers, with the entrance on one side and the exit on the other. Those wishing to use the site bring their own substances and approach social services or harm reduction officers on site.
Amber Fritz is one such worker. She took Sudbury.com on a tour, showing the area where people are greeted, the substance use area, and a separate office for those looking for service navigation. There are no on-site housing workers or wound care first aiders, but those trained in overdose detection and resuscitation, as well as trauma-informed care.
Each booth overlooks a mirror to help the substance user inject properly, providing a measure of privacy. No complete privacy though, as harm reduction workers can clearly see individuals while they are using and can then intervene if there is a drug toxicity issue, which means the substance the person is using n It’s not what she believed it to be and therefore couldn’t accurately judge the dose, rather than just taking too much.
Each area of the space has approximately 15-20 minutes for members to obtain/use services before having to travel, as there is only one space for up to three people at that time.
And the use, in this case, is specifically for injection. No facilities in Ontario offer supervised inhalation because more infrastructure, including ventilation systems, is required, driving up costs.
“Inhalation is not something we are able to offer, but maybe one day,” Fritz told Sudbury.com. “Without offering inhalation, we recognize that some people won’t be able to access this service. And that’s a real shame.”
Unfortunately, from January 2018 to March 2022, 62% of local opioid-related overdose deaths had evidence of pipe/foil sniffing at the scene of death (23.4% had both injection drug use and inhalation; 38.5% had inhalation only) said Jonathan Laderoute of Public Health Sudbury & Districts.
“These numbers are quite similar to those seen in northern Ontario,” he said, where evidence of inhalation was present in 60% of overdose deaths. (There were 35 percent with evidence of injection only; 23 percent with both).
In Timmins, inhalation deaths account for about half of the calls that paramedics respond to in the area.
Timmins has a safe injection site, open since July. During its first month of operation, there were 669 visits, with nearly 200 people who use substances frequenting the site.
Patrick Nowak, manager of substance abuse and outpatient mental health programs at Timmins and District Hospital, which operates the Timmins Safe Health Site, told Sudbury.com the program is working well.
“We started with about 10 visits a day, (but) that has steadily increased, now we see about 50 to 60 a day, including those who need harm reduction supplies,” he said. .
Since opening, there has been only one overdose requiring care, and no deaths.
Nowak said the key to success has been raising street awareness, letting people know the site is going to open, as well as encouraging them to use the site knowing that staff will be trained to recognize an overdose and avoid the use of naloxone if at all possible. If someone is given naloxone, a fast-acting drug used to temporarily reverse the effects of opioid use, without needing it, they will be ripped off their “high” and sent into almost immediate withdrawal.
Time on the site can be a challenge, as it’s meant to be a place where people who use substances can use, connect with services, and “then move on,” Nowak said. “But people stay longer depending on what’s in the substances. When substances contain substances like benzodiazepines, they may require longer monitoring.
Customers are also looking for telephone, water, snacks, sanitary facilities on site.
“We see visits specifically for hands-on support,” Nowak said. “Sometimes it impacts the wait to use the cabins.”
Women and those who identify as women “especially” like the site, Nowak said, because they feel safer from both “theft and the potential for assault.”
Part of the success of the Timmins site is its location. Formerly called the Living Space, the site was previously used as a drop-in center and therefore part of routine for many of Timmins’ vulnerable populations.
The Sudbury location was placed downtown to be close to existing services including the ACCESS Network, the Samaritan Center and the Elgin Street Mission, but with the clearance of the Memorial Park Campand increased police presencemany vulnerable people and drug addicts leave the city center.
Sudbury.com has learned of several campsites in urban areas and on the outskirts of Greater Sudbury, and although not as large as Memorial Park, they are getting bigger now that the weather has changed.
Although not all, many residents of these encampments use substances and could use them in harmful ways without being able to get to the safe consumption site and then return to their temporary living situation.
However, something is better than nothing. Although the idea of harm reduction through consumer sites has been circulating since the mid-1990s, it is a tough sell, especially to government. The word “enable” comes up often.
But Fritz has an answer to that: “Absolutely, I allow people.”
She quotes Daniel Raymond, a pioneer in harm reduction. “I’m absolutely an enabler,” she quotes, “I empower people to take control of their health over their lives, to prevent them from getting Hep C or HIV, or worse.”
Fritz said the safe consumption site is rooted in harm reduction and, as part of this, saves lives. “We meet people where they are, we don’t judge, we welcome everyone. We just want to make this place a safe place where people can come and recognize that someone is protecting them. »
Jenny Lamothe is a journalist at Sudbury.com. She covers Sudbury’s diverse communities, particularly vulnerable or marginalized people, including Black, Indigenous, Newcomer and Francophone communities, as well as 2SLGBTQ+ and downtown issues.