Safe drug-use site treats 26 overdoses in 1st month
Staff at Calgary’s first supervised drug consumption site responded to 26 overdoses during the service’s first month of operation.
Claire O’Gorman, program coordinator for Safeworks, which runs the facility at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre, said staff saw 224 individuals and 990 visits between its opening Oct. 30 and Nov. 30.
During its first week of operation, the site averaged 11 visits a day — a number that grew to an average of 59 visits a day by the last week of November.
O’Gorman said out of the 26 overdoses that staff responded to, just two required an ambulance response.
“They were managed on site by our nurses with naloxone and oxygen, and then people were staying for some monitoring after that,” she said. “So (staff are) doing some life-saving stuff already.”
Since the site received approval from Health Canada in late October, posters and business cards have been distributed to community partners and other service agencies to let them know that the supervised drug consumption site is there. But O’Gorman said they have largely raised awareness of the service through word of mouth.
“People are coming, they’re receiving services and then they’re coming back, and they’re bringing a friend,” she said.
“I think that’s the biggest indicator of success for me is that we’re delivering services in a nonjudgmental, welcoming way that’s addressing and meeting people’s needs, so I’m really pleased about that part.”
O’Gorman added that 16 per cent of visits to the site in the first month of operation consisted of people talking to a nurse or accessing kits containing the opioid antidote naloxone.
“We distributed 138 naloxone kits from the site in our first month of operation,” she said.
The temporary site, located in an ATCO trailer in the parking lot of the Chumir health centre, can accommodate seven people at once and features four consumption booths.
“That’s primarily where our registered nurses are situated, because they can provide some education and support around safer drug use, overdose prevention,” said O’Gorman. “And then should someone overdose, typically it happens pretty quickly — so the nurses are there to respond in that moment and we have all of our emergency interventions available in that space.”
The facility also includes a monitoring room, where people can spend time after using to ensure an overdose doesn’t occur.
“That room is also a really important time for engagement,” said O’Gorman. “After they’ve used, after they’re no longer in withdrawal or experiencing really strong cravings, that’s our opportunity to have conversations about their health and well-being and what other social services we can connect them to.”
From there, patients can also be referred directly to the opioid dependency program at the health centre or see a social worker who is on the Safeworks team.
The permanent supervised consumption site off the 13th Avenue entrance of the health centre is under construction and is expected to be completed early next year.
And then should someone overdose ... we have all of our emergency interventions available in that space.