‘YOU CAN’T SHOOT UP
On the front lines of the war against overdoses
Sue crouches down to hug the woman slumped against a building on the sidewalk along Rideau Street. “Do you need anything? Are you OK?” She gets a smile in return. Sue is a tiny woman in her mid-50s, wearing a ball cap and T-shirt with the words Overdose Prevention Team printed on back.
She is a front line soldier in the battle against overdose deaths on the streets of Ottawa’s ByWard Market. And, like other peer support workers with Ottawa Inner City Health, she became a peer, in part, because she knows about addiction first hand.
Sue was married and had a job when she was first prescribed opiates nearly 25 years ago. She was soon hooked. From Tylenol 3, she moved to Percocet, then to OxyContin.
For years she managed her life that way. “I was working and living a normal life and taking my opiates. For a couple of years it wasn’t a problem until … I don’t even know when it became a problem.”
Soon, she said, the addiction took over her life. “You can’t live without them, you can’t get out of bed.” She was getting drugs from five different doctors.
That ended when she entered a methadone treatment program nine years ago — something she remains on. She takes methadone every morning and hasn’t taken an opiate since. “I just made up my mind I wasn’t going to have anything control me.”
She says she doesn’t look back at her life wishing it was different.
“It made me who I am today and I am OK with that. Sure, my life might have been different, but it is kind of a blessing in disguise because it has helped me advance my life and probably if I didn’t get prescribed those pills, I wouldn’t be doing the job that I am.”
Inner City Health relies on people such as Sue to be its eyes on the street. Four nights a week, Sue is out with a partner offering naloxone kits, clean crack pipes, water, candy and conversation. They clean up needles when they find them and administer naloxone when someone has overdosed. Sue says she has saved people with naloxone three times. Sue clearly loves the work. “I feel lucky that I am able to have this job. It is very rewarding and it helps me get the big picture. It is not just for them, it is for me, too. They help me as much as I help them.”
When asked what makes her a good peer, Sue offers that she “meets people where they are without being judgmental.”
Her supervisor, Anne Marie Hopkins leans in and adds. “Compassion, Sue. You have lots of compassion.”