Opioid hub fills a vital need, says YWCA executive director
Services like this have long been offered safely downtown
The arrival of a new Opioids Response Hub at the former Greyhound bus station downtown is heartening for Kim Dolan.
“Top of mind for me is that this is just the right thing to do,” she said. “People are dying, and it’s unconscionable that we would stand by and watch because stigma and confusion gets in the way. I think this is an opportunity to bring forward our best humanity.”
Dolan is the executive director of the YWCA, which is next door to the former Greyhound station at Simcoe and Aylmer streets that is the new home — as of Thursday — to PARN’s Harm Reduction Works program.
Dolan is no stranger to PARN, as she was executive director there for 16 years prior to taking her new role at the YWCA in December.
For years, Dolan has advocated for new services in Peterborough to help people struggling with opioid addiction, and this new hub is an advancement of that goal.
PARN planned to move into the former Greyhound station at 220 Simcoe St. this week and to also have additional staff including peer workers, a paramedic and case workers.
The location may later serve as a supervised drug consumption and treatment centre; PARN plans to apply for provincial government approval and funding.
Earlier this week, some downtown neighbours of the property said they had concerns about the Opioid Hub detracting from the area’s library, restaurants and shops.
Other people are worried about downtown safety.
One longtime downtown store manager — who didn’t want to be named, for fear that staff would be threatened with physical harm — said the downtown is getting increasingly dangerous and that workers are concerned for their safety already.
They don’t think the hub will help. “We’re worried — and we’re afraid to say anything,” the manager said.
But Dolan said that in all the years she worked at PARN, people who used the harm reduction services felt stigmatized and judged — and they never hung around the building on King Street once they accessed their services.
She also said the former Greyhound location will work because ambulances are frequently called to Simcoe Street over drug poisonings.
Opioid addiction has been highly prevalent in Peterborough lately. So far this year, there have been 34 deaths suspected to have been caused by drug overdose, exceeding the 29 from all of 2019.
Dolan said that PARN and other advocates for addiction services are showing “incredible professionalism” in bringing the hub downtown.
“This is not a time to be critical of people doing their part,” she said.
Another neighbour will be Artspace, the artist-run gallery on Aylmer Street. Director Jon Lockyer wrote in an email that the gallery is “thrilled” to hear about the new hub.
“We welcome this type of support for those that need it,” he wrote. “It is vital, life-saving work that has been a necessity in our community for some time now. The location in the downtown makes perfect sense and we look forward to supporting the project in whatever way we can.”
Across the street at the Salvation Army, Corps Officer Carolyn Simpson also extended a welcome.
“The Salvation Army continues to support those in crisis every day,” she wrote in an email. “We look forward to working with PARN’s Harm Reduction Works and other community partners to keep people safe.”
St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church on Brock Street had a post this week on its Facebook account stating that the opioid crisis is being overlooked in the COVID-19 pandemic and that the announcement of the new hub is great news.
Perhaps the new hub location will help prevent further fatalities this year, Dolan added: “Fingers crossed nobody else dies.”