Mobile safe consumption site for opioids in works for Calgary

The Alberta government has given the go-ahead for a mobile safe consumption site for opioids in Calgary, as well as a new stand-alone site in Medicine Hat.

Following a needs assessment, the Minister’s Opioid Emergency Response Commission has endorsed a proposal for an additional supervised drug consumption site in the city beyond the facility in place at the Sheldon Chumir Medical Centre.

HIV Community Link will apply to the federal government for the needed permission to operate a mobile unit in Calgary and, if approved, the service will be funded by Alberta Health.

Leslie Hill, executive director of HIV Community Link, said a mobile unit would allow service providers to be more “nimble” in helping drug users stay safe.

“Calgary is such a huge city and the higher rates of overdose aren’t limited to the core of the city,” she said Thursday.

HIV Calgary conducted the needs assessment as part of a broad coalition that included social service and health agencies, as well as the City of Calgary and the Calgary Police Service.

The next step for HIV Community Link under the federal process is community consultations.

There were 74 accidental overdose deaths related to the opioid fentanyl in Alberta in the first quarter of 2018, with 36 in Calgary. The province saw 589 fentanyl deaths in 2017 and a further 125 fatal overdoses from other opioids.

From the end of October 2017, when it opened, through the end of March, the Chumir facility reversed 186 overdoses.

It has had more than 10,000 visits in that time, with the average number of visits per day increasing from 11 in its first week of operations to 106 visits in the last week of March.

There were 473 individuals who made more than a combined 3,000 visits in March.

The opioid committee has also given approval to a mobile safe consumption site in Grande Prairie, which is further along in the consultation process.

And it gave approval for HIV Community Link to apply for a safe consumption site in Medicine Hat, which would be that city’s first.