Consumptionsiteincentreofopioidfight
Facility permits four types
The centrepiece in the fight against the opioid crisis in Lethbridge is the newly-opened supervised consumption site. It is a place for people to take drugs under the watchful eye of trained medical staff.
The site is the first of its kind to permit four types of consumption: injection, ingestion, inhaling, or internasal.
During a tour of the facility a week before it opened in February of this year, Lethbridge West MLA Shannon Phillips called the site historic for the city.
“It’s important to realize how historic this is,” she said. “The previous federal government took this all the way to the supreme court to fight stuff like this – and they lost. And now we’re going to be here saving lives.”
Located in the former Pulse nightclub building on 1 Avenue South, the site is operated by ARCHES, a local harm reduction agency, with wraparound services dedicated to prevention, addictions counselling, housing and employment services.
The site is staffed by registered nurses or LPNs, harm-reduction specialists and addictions counsellors. The east side of the building will be used for offices and meeting space.
A number of factors were taken into account in determining the location for the SCS. The Lethbridge Executive Leaders Coalition on Opioid Use completed a six-month comprehensive needs assessment to determine whether such a site was needed and if so, what would be an appropriate location.
Stakeholder interviews were completed along with nine community information sessions.
The location was determined to be best suited due to its close proximity to primary areas where public drug use occurs, its proximity to public transit, and the fact that it is well away from residential neighbourhoods.
There is a high incidence of overdoses occurring within a 1.5-kilometre radius of the identified site. At the time, Thirty-eight per cent of emergency calls related to overdoses were happening within that radius.
"The nice thing about that location is it's very close to many of the hotspots that we know currently exist within our community," Jill Manning, Managing Director for ARCHES, told The Herald in August last year. "Also, we wanted to ensure we aren't close to any residential properties. We recognize that isn't an appropriate space for these types of services to be integrated."
The site received $2 million in initial funding with an additional $1.6 million in annual operational funding for the 10,000 sq. foot space. It has since received an additional amount of $2.6 million for extra booths and another smoking room to meet increased demand.
Drug users begin with an intake process which includes medical information and information on the drug they intend to use. They are directed to the consumption room, which features six booths for injection, snorting, or oral ingestion. There are also two inhalation rooms for smoking.
They will then into an observation room where they can be monitored for another 10 to 15 minutes following consumption.
The building also features an enhanced ventilation system to ensure workplace health and safety for employees and clients. It has been mechanically engineered to exchange air flow at a higher rate than a regular system, along with an emergency switch system to automatically turn air over. Masks are kept onsite and policies and procedures put in place.
There is a medical room, a round room for cultural activities, a common area, a kitchen area, showers, laundry, and washrooms, and a nursing station.
In the event of an overdose, nurses on staff have the ability to provide oxygen or administer naloxone.
If there is no response after two to three minutes of administering Naloxone, 911 is called. If an overdose happens in the inhalation rooms, a system is in place to quickly turn over the air to allow nurses to enter safely.
There are a number of opportunities to connect with services on-site.
Research has shown SCS operations do not encourage drug use in the community. Also, contrary to some misconceptions in the community, the site does not provide drugs to users but creates a safe environment where they can be monitored by a medical professional while using their own drugs.
In fact, the site reduces public drug use. In Lethbridge, the site is on pace for 15,000 uses in July. Many of these uses would have been in public spaces, created more incidents of public disorder, and added to the issue of needle debris in the community.
More importantly, the hundreds of overdoses which have been reversed at the site would have been additional strain on emergency responders and resulted in more overdose deaths had they happened in public.
“At this point, the only thing we are enabling is breathing,” Stacey Bourque, Executive Director for ARCHES told the Herald in February. “We want people to stay alive.”
The consumption room is the only place on the property where drug use is permitted. No drugs will be kept on site, as users will be consuming their own drugs they bring in with them.
Anything left behind, lost, or stolen, has to be picked up within a 24-hour period of time.
The site has the support of local police. LPS is looking to see a reduction in drug use in public places, such as the downtown public library, and public parks. It could also result in a reduction of drug debris and nuisance behaviour in the community.
-With files from Melissa Villeneuve
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