Local news delivered daily to your email inbox. Subscribe for FREE to the rdnewsNOW newsletter.

Temporary overdose prevention site a small piece of much larger puzzle

Sep 10, 2018 | 4:25 PM

We’re starting to learn what a temporary overdose prevention site in Red Deer will look like.

Announced earlier this month by Health Minister Sarah Hoffman, the site will consist of an ATCO trailer placed next to the Safe Harbour Society building at 5246 53 Ave.

On the inside, the trailer will appear much like a supervised consumption site, with four booths where injections take place – and it will be staffed. It is the same trailer previously used for a supervised consumption site at Calgary’s Sheldon Chumir Health Centre.

(Video – AHS)

There will be no wraparound services at the Red Deer site, however, and clients may only inject rather than consume their drugs by other means.

“The federal government has given every province the ability to set up overdose prevention sites,” Hoffman explains. “With Red Deer having the highest rate in Alberta, it is an emergency.”

The temporary overdose prevention site has a 12-month limit and will likely be operational before the end of September. Expansion is possible in the near future if there is a need to serve more than four people at a time.

The end of month deadline was established by the working committee comprised of Alberta Health, Alberta Health Services, The City of Red Deer, Turning Point, and Safe Harbour Society.

Though Hoffman says the committee came to a consensus regarding the Safe Harbour site, Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer is clear that it wasn’t The City’s first choice.

“The most straight-forward option for the provincial government was to choose the hospital grounds, because that was identified through land use. It had already gone through a statutory public hearing,” she says. “The provincial government has had the opportunity since January to relocate temporary or permanent services to that site.”

Veer says she told Minister Hoffman that The City would not object should the minister exercise her authority in approving a temporary site.

In the end, the minister went with the committee recommendation to put it at Safe Harbour, whose executive director says this step is a very small piece of a much larger puzzle.

“The location is not ideal, and neither is the fact that it’s temporary or not the full supervised consumption site yet,” says Safe Harbour’s Kath Hoffman. “We are just as dedicated to getting that permanent site going as we are this temporary one. This is temporary and it came quick and people may be surprised by it, but we know it’s necessary.”

In May, Safe Harbour was approved by council as one of two eligible sites for a mobile supervised consumption unit. Last December when council was debating locations for a permanent site, Safe Harbour was not selected and they openly stated that they didn’t want to be because of all the work they’re already doing.

“When we have the highest numbers in Alberta – okay – now we start thinking different,” Kath notes. “We’re going to try and help.”

What would help, Veer has repeatedly said, is more shelter space. In a letter to the minister dated Aug. 31, she says the community has expectations should the decision be made to go ahead with an overdose prevention site.

They include working together towards a long-term solution for integrated shelter with wraparound supports to resolve Red Deer’s systemic social challenges, and the expectation that the province will fund those long-term solutions.

Veer also stated the urgent need for a needle debris strategy.

The latest figures show Red Deer has seen 24 deaths from fentanyl overdoses in the first half of 2018, while Turning Point — who will be operating the temporary overdose prevention site — has recorded 37 (including from drugs other than fentanyl) so far this year.