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Turning Point releases new report on mobile supervised consumption services

Mar 22, 2018 | 4:42 PM

Red Deer’s leader in helping those with addictions is continuing to push the conversation on supervised consumption services (SCS).
 
Turning Point has released a new report looking specifically at mobile SCS — its pros and cons, as well as how other mobile units in Canada have fared to this point.
 
The report says mobile services can be a stepping stone to more social acceptability of SCS in general, and that it could increase accessibility to drug users across the city. It also says mobile SCS can compliment and add value to a fixed site.
 
The list of constraints includes lower service capacity, less cost-effectiveness, less predictable schedules, and longer wait times.
 
“Mobile SCS as a standalone service is not appropriate and it wouldn’t meet the needs of our community,” says Rebecca Hare, SCS Consultant at Turning Point. “We are doing our due diligence and showing all the research around it, and while it does provide overdose prevention, it doesn’t provide the full spectrum of services that our community wants, needs and deserves.”
 
Hare says Turning Point wants the community, stakeholders and decision-makers to have the most up-to-date research and evidence about mobile SCS.
 
“Where there is hesitation in a community, mobile can improve the acceptability of SCS. However, it has really limited service ability,” Hare states, referring to the wrap-around services which would be available at a fixed site, but not in an RV.
 
“We know mobile could be useful if our city had a wide geographic distribution of people who use drugs, but our research show us people who use drugs are concentrated in the downtown area.”
 
Hare re-iterates that the first priority of Turning Point is saving lives and preventing overdose deaths, and that mobile SCS is not best practice.
 
“We do hope The City sees this report and bases their decisions on the evidence that’s being presented,” she goes on. “We are looking at all the options that are available because we have to at this point.”
 
In December, Red Deer city council pegged the hospital parking lot as the only place properly zoned for fixed SCS. Turning Point has stated that will not happen – the first reason being that the hospital doesn’t want it.
 
Now, council is awaiting proposed changes to several bylaws which would facilitate the implementation of mobile SCS.
 
The former Central Alberta AIDS Network Society has further stated that mobile SCS would not properly meet the needs of the community, and it maintains their current location in Red Deer’s downtown is the only place SCS should be.

Three other Canadian cities have mobile services — Kamloops and Kelowna, BC which have standalone mobile, and Montreal where there is mobile to complement that city’s fixed site. Though those mobile sites have saved lives, the Turning Point report notes several less than ideal conditions.
 
As rdnewsNOW reported at the beginning of March, there were 11 overdose deaths from opioids in Red Deer during January and February. There have been two more since.

Turning Point has also created a dedicated SCS Facebook page.