Program started out quietly, now an exemplar

Every hour, between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., residents of the Oaks — Ottawa’s managed alcohol program — line up for a glass of wine. The “pour,” as it is known, has been getting attention from around the world in recent years. But that is not how it started.

Created by Ottawa Inner City Health and the Shepherd’s of Good Hope, the program aimed at stabilizing mainly homeless alcoholics began quietly more than 15 years ago.

There were opponents, even death threats to some Inner City Health officials. Despite that, Ottawa’s most famous harm reduction program quietly thrived in its early years.

Flying under the radar has become a fine art for Inner City Health, which has developed cuttingedge programs that serve the homeless, save money and are beginning to influence health care around the world.

“We like being under the radar,” says executive director Wendy Muckle.

Its latest is an opioid exchange program, which will prescribe and supervise the injection of Dilaudid for addicts in an attempt to keep them from using street drugs that are increasingly laced with fentanyl. The non-profit has been working quietly, and quickly, to get it off the ground in light of spiking rates of overdoses.

Meanwhile, the managed alcohol program known as MAP has become a model for harm reduction around the world. It has been studied by international researchers and public health officials from across the globe. International media have visited Ottawa to write about it and communities across Canada and elsewhere are setting up their own programs.