Red Deer's temporary Overdose Prevention Site (OPS) is located in the Railyards district, adjacent to Safe Harbour Society (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

extension granted

Red Deer’s Overdose Prevention Site gets six-month extension

Oct 3, 2019 | 2:52 PM

Red Deer’s temporary Overdose Prevention Site (OPS) has been granted an extension to stay open for another six months.

Operated by Turning Point in the city’s Railyards district, the OPS opened its doors to clients on Oct. 1, 2018.

Turning Point had been working under the assumption it would be able to open a permanent supervised consumption services (SCS) site at a later date, but the election of Jason Kenney’s UCP last May threw a wrench into that plan.

The United Conservatives are currently in the middle of a full-scale review of supervised consumption services, which are offered at six fixed sites in Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie and Lethbridge. Written and online submissions were being taken until Sept. 30.

“It’s definitely a relief. We really appreciate the province, The City and everyone who helped make that possible,” says Stacey Carmichael, Executive Director.

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“I feel like we actually have quite a bit of support for the service itself, both throughout the community and from different businesses nearby. For sure there’s always going to be work to do, but I feel like we’ve made some headway.”

A full first-year report is coming in the days ahead, but for the first 11 months of being open, Carmichael shares that the OPS had 33,007 visits from 564 unique individuals.

There were 848 overdose interventions, and only 49 calls to EMS. Of the clients, about 63 per cent have been male, and 37 per cent female.

Carmichael notes, most importantly, that there were zero fatalities.

Jason Luan, Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, has stated that a report will be presented to government by the end of 2019.