Opioid hub seeking input from surrounding community
Organizers want to hear from businesses and residents next month
A community consultation for the consumption and treatment services site proposed for Simcoe Street will be conducted in November.
“Consultation is a part of the application to both the provincial and federal governments,” said Charles Shamess, executive director of PARN.
“The provincial government we applied for the funding for the CTS and we applied to the federal government for the exemption to operate the site, the Health Canada exemption, so part of those applications is we are required to do a community consultation.”
Plans were announced earlier this month for Peterborough’s first opioid hub, to be located in the former Greyhound bus station at the corner of Simcoe and Aylmer streets.
It will house PARN’s Harm Reduction Works and a new Mobile Strategic Overdose Response Team, with staff from FourCast and local paramedics.
Shamess said anyone can sign up to participate in the virtual consultations, held from Nov. 4 to 11.
“We are really focused on the neighbours, both residential and business neighbours within about 250 metres of the site,” he said.
“It is to answer people’s questions specifically about what goes on inside a consumption and treatment site and then also try to help them mitigate any concerns that they may have,” he said.
Shamess said that due to COVID-19 the consultations will occur online through a platform like Zoom.
“They will be virtual, the survey is online, so people can answer it that way,” he said.
“We will also have paper copies if someone doesn’t have access to the internet, we can give them a paper copy of the online survey.”
He said the centre will operate with health care workers onsite, both nurses and paramedics, which is considered a hybrid model.
“You have to have a clinical person on staff all the time to respond to the overdose,” he said.
“All staff in there will be trained to respond to an overdose, but again you have to have a nurse or a paramedic on-site so assuming we get funded Peterborough EMS has agreed to be a part of this, as well as the 360 Nursing Clinic.”
People who would benefit the most from this are marginalized, often those with mental health, addictions or street involved, said Suzanne Galloway, executive director of the Peterborough 360 nurse-practitioner-led clinic.
“We see this as a life-saving health intervention, we provide primary health care with a focus on serving people who are marginalized, often people with mental health, addictions or are street involved.”
To register for the sessions, visit www.peterboroughdrugstrategy.com/cts.