Ottawa Citizen

POP-UP IN THE PARK

Addicts get safe site

- PAULA McCOOEY

As health care workers implore Ontario to declare opioid overdoses and deaths an emergency, an Ottawa nurse says people need immediate access to harm reduction sites, whether they are sanctioned or not.

“I think these sites will start popping up across Ontario because I think people are no longer willing to wait,” said Marilou Gagnon, an associate professor in the school of nursing at the University of Ottawa and president of Harm Reduction Nurses Associatio­n.

Gagnon joined the chorus of more than 700 doctors, nurses, harm reduction workers and academics who called on the province to declare opioid overdoses and deaths an emergency.

They released an open letter Monday saying limited resources and poor data are preventing them from responding properly to a disturbing and sustained increase in overdoses. They say an emergency declaratio­n will allow for increased funding to front-line harm reduction workers, more overdose prevention sites and opioid programs.

In the most recent provincial data, 412 Ontarians died of opioid overdoses in the first six months of 2016 — an 11-per-cent increase from the previous year.

After meeting with members of the group on Monday, Premier Kathleen Wynne said that the government will announce “significan­t additional resources and supports” in the coming days.

Health Minister Eric Hoskins is scheduled to make an announceme­nt related to the crisis on Tues- day at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, where he will be joined by Dr. David Williams, chief medical officer of health and provincial overdose coordinato­r.

To tackle the opioid crisis in Ottawa, Gagnon worked over the weekend with Overdose Prevention Ottawa (OPO), a group that opened an unauthoriz­ed, volunteer-based “pop-up” injection site in Raphael Brunet Park near the By Ward Market on Friday.

On Monday, she said OPO saw 50 people over three days who came to use their drugs in a safe environmen­t.

“Part of harm reduction is more than just giving people supplies. It’s understand­ing that if you are hungry, you are not going to be as healthy, so part of the approach is that we care about them beyond the drug use.”

Hundreds of health-care workers have requested that Ontario declare a state of emergency as a result of the opioid crisis. Such a declaratio­n would allow for an influx of funding — the signatorie­s to an open letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne asking for the declaratio­n estimate it should run into the millions of dollars — to create more overdose-prevention sites, money for frontline workers and more opioid programs.

The government would be well advised to listen; if it doesn’t declare a state of emergency, it should at least take to heart the requests made of it and make decisions quickly.

While government mulls policy, people are dying and landing in hospital.

Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins has said more plans are coming soon.

It’s hard to escape the sense that soon isn’t soon enough.

As both Toronto and Ottawa have seen unsanction­ed pop-up supervised-injection sites open in recent weeks, it’s clear that, on the ground, there’s the feeling the government response isn’t enough and that drastic action is needed.

Whatever one’s views on such sites — and it is troubling to have unsanction­ed sites operating — it’s even more concerning that some feel such a step is necessary.

Meanwhile, the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre told the Citizen’s Alison Mah that it is hoping to accelerate its own plans to open a government-approved supervised-injection site in a matter of weeks — not in October or November as initially planned.

In June, 135 people required hospital care for overdoses in Ottawa.

(This isn’t just Ontario, either, or the rest of Canada: Earlier this month, the White House panel examining the opioid crisis in the United States recommende­d that U.S. President Donald Trump declare a public health emergency.)

British Columbia did so, in April 2016. It allowed for the collection of real-time data.

Long on the list of complaints of those grappling with the spate of overdoses and deaths is that Ontario isn’t keeping accurate data.

At the moment, the province’s most up-todate data are from March of this year, and show only hospitaliz­ations and emergency visits.

Statistics on deaths are available only up to June 2016.

The Ontario government must do more — and more quickly, with or without an emergency declaratio­n, though, as addiction physician Dr. Alexander Caudarella points out to The Canadian Press, it would be symbolical­ly powerful to all those labouring in the midst of the crisis. The costs of under-reacting to this crisis are quite simply too high, and will result in more dead, more devastated families and more tragedy on our streets. The government must do more, and do it now.

There’s no time to lose.

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 ?? JULIE OLIVER ?? Sarah, 34, along with her friend, Justin, inject heroin and smoke crack cocaine at the Overdose Prevention Ottawa site off St. Patrick Street in downtown Ottawa on Monday evening.
JULIE OLIVER Sarah, 34, along with her friend, Justin, inject heroin and smoke crack cocaine at the Overdose Prevention Ottawa site off St. Patrick Street in downtown Ottawa on Monday evening.

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