Turning Point: People dying as safe consumption debate needlessly drags on

Hello Red Deer!

I am currently the Executive Director of Turning Point Society in Red Deer and I have had the opportunity to work primarily in this city’s human services sector for over twenty years. I am a mom to a beautiful daughter and four amazing sons. I have TWO grandchildren (and another on the way) that make my heart sing.  I grew up in Red Deer, attended school here and I have made my life here. I love this city, it is my home.

I was asked recently if I would consider writing an article for rdnewsNOW once in a while. I have thought a great deal about this opportunity and pondered what to write about as I do have a lot to say. I thought to myself how much I wish I could write something profound to help our community have a better understanding of the world I work in. I hope to instill some knowledge about harm reduction, substance use, homelessness and poverty and bring some light to the realities of trying to sustain a non-profit organization to respond to such things.

After some thought, I’ve decided I just want to tell a story.

Last week the Turing Point staff were getting ready to open for the day when a young man came running up to our door looking wild and scared.  He needed help as his friend was overdosing in the back. When I went out, another young man was slumped against the wall, he had stopped breathing and his pulse was almost gone. Thankfully we have nurses on staff.  They brought out the breather mask and naloxone and this young man eventually woke up. He couldn’t have been any older than 21 and he almost died in a back alley in our community. If that isn’t enough, there were two more overdoses on site that day, along with ten others we know of in the community.  

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The next day I walked into work and noticed pillows placed throughout the office. When I asked about the pillows, one of the staff said, “I picked them up for next time so we don’t have to keep reviving people only to have them wake up lying on the concrete.” This work changes a person. It makes one appreciate how waking up from the verge of death with a pillow under your head versus being scrutinized and judged is the catalyst of a real solution.

I have been involved in our community for over 20 years working to get programs and services going for vulnerable people. Examples include Monarch Place, Safe Harbour Mats and Detox and the Warming Center. I know all too well what typically happens. In fact, we are in the middle of it right now with our efforts to open a supervised consumption service (SCS). We tend to overlook the needs of the group of people we are trying to help and the organizations trying to help them. We dismiss the research and what will actually work to appease certain other segments of the population. We keep missing the boat. No wonder things are the way they are!

In regards to the challenges we are having getting an SCS in our community I think it is important to note a few things. In 2017 Turning Point, in consort with the Red Deer Coalition on the Opioid Crisis, did a research project that included a robust literature review, community consultations and a survey with over 250 people who use drugs. The survey was administered by a research team who utilized a community-based research model, employing principles of community involvement and collaboration while using scientifically accepted research methods to determine the best course of action for SCS in our community. This report seems to have been essentially dismissed and made secondary to a survey monkey survey put out by the Downtown Business Association. This apparent dismissiveness helped to see a decision by our municipality to zone the hospital as the only possible location for an SCS in Red Deer (the property owners (AHS), Turning Point, as the service provider, and the people who will use the service have said this is not an option for a variety of very good reasons) has stalled all progress. 

This is not at all like what any other communities have done and while we wait and question the best course of action we lost another 4 individuals over the long weekend and had over 20 overdoses. So far in 2018 we have lost no less than 25 community members to an overdose.

I hope someday that we will stop passing judgment (criticize or condemn someone from a position of assumed moral superiority) and letting fear (to be afraid of [someone or something] as likely to be dangerous, painful, or threatening) determine how we respond to substance use and our ability to support those who live with it every day.  Instead I hope that we can come from a place of compassion (a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering) and evidence based research (means that the information you use to make decisions about patient care is based on sound research, not opinion) to address the issues we are seeing in our community. 

When we can do this, when we get rid of the stigma and shame that has been overshadowing our ability to respond properly to this crisis I know that things will change.  It will take all of us to value pillows above concrete as a minimum level of care because only then will things will get better for everyone. 

Thanks for reading!

Stacey Carmichael

NOTE: The views expressed in this column do not necessarily represent those of rdnewsNOW or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group. Column suggestions and letters to the editor can be sent to news@rdnewsNOW.com.