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Agencies remain optimistic amid public anger over supervised consumption

May 29, 2018 | 5:18 PM

Safe Harbour Society executive director Kath Hoffman gets why people are angry over the opioid crisis plaguing Red Deer.

But Hoffman says people are simply looking for a solution, which is something everyone can agree needs to happen.

“People are upset at council, they’re upset at the agencies, they’re upset at the parks, they’re upset [at everyone],” Hoffman recognized. “At first I was thinking they were just being mean, but it occurs to me that no, they are not. They want something done, and I think that’s one thing we all agree on.”

City councillors have received dozens of angry comments from residents over the issue. Tanya Handley was nearly brought to tears Monday night as she recalled some of what’s come her way.

Hoffman says there are no winners when playing the blame game and feels for what councillors are dealing with.

“I can empathize with them being blamed. I know what it’s like to be blamed, it’s a horrible feeling,” she admitted. “I think what we have to do is concentrate all our efforts on getting a place for these people to be.”

Stacey Carmichael with Turning Point is also frustrated at how blame is being tossed around.

“It’s similar to people blaming Turning Point for substance use issues in our community. I don’t even want to comment,” she said from Vancouver on Wednesday where she’s visiting supervised consumption facility Insite.

Late Monday night, city council approved Safe Harbour and Red Deer Regional Hospital as potential sites for a mobile SCS unit should an application be made. 

Both Hoffman and Carmichael say their organizations will look at doing so but maintain a permanent SCS site still provides Red Deer with its best solution.

“If the mobile thing is all that we can do in this community for now, it’s better than nothing. But it won’t bring the outcomes that people want,” Hoffman points out. “It’s a very, very temporary fix with no real outcome.”

In December, city council designated the hospital as the lone potential location for permanent SCS in Red Deer.

While Alberta Health Services remains opposed to this, Central Zone Chief Zone Officer Kerry Bales says they are open to being part of a temporary (mobile) solution for the time being.

“We think it’s important that we get the service up and running as quickly as possible,” Bales notes. “If we can’t get a permanent solution in place in the short-term that we at least have a temporary solution up and running as soon as we can and the Red Deer Regional Hospital site, along with any possible other options we come up with between all of the stakeholders, is certainly on the table, and we’re going to look at what makes the most sense.”

Carmichael remains hopeful a permanent solution will be found.

“I remain optimistic that we can eventually provide a service that makes sense to the people who are going to use it. Some of the decisions that have been made to date would maybe make someone question whether or not that’s a priority for everybody. But I remain optimistic.”