Mobile harm reduction program brings support to rural communities

New initiative from AIDS Network will see van hit the streets this spring

Call it harm reduction on wheels.

A new initiative from the AIDS Network will see a van hitting the streets of Brantford, Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk this spring, providing those in need with clean needles, naloxone kits and safe-sex materials.

“One of the harm reduction principles is meeting people where they’re at,” said Tim McClemont, executive director of the AIDS Network, which serves Hamilton, Halton, Haldimand, Norfolk and Brant. “It’s going to the spaces that they might be at already.”

The van program allows the organization to travel to those who might have mobility issues, live in rural areas, have trouble accessing harm reduction materials or who are reluctant to access support, McClemont said.

The need for such a service in Brantford, as well as Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk counties, is dire.

“We now have a crisis where so many people have become addicted to opioids and other substances that they’re at high risk of death,” he said, calling the drug supply “poisoned” with powerful substances such as fentanyl.

The Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network, which also covers most of Norfolk County, had the most opioid-related deaths in the province in 2018.

The mobile program follows in the path of a similar wellestablished and in-demand initiative in Hamilton.

The Steeltown program, operated in partnership with Hamilton Public Health Services, runs five to seven days a week and “at times, staff can’t fulfil the calls,” McClemont said.

Funding for the new van program comes from the Ontario Ministry of Health.

Here’s how it works: those who require services call the AIDS Network and request the van. It then travels to them. In between calls, it will be stationed at different community health centres.

The program will operate from 3 to 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday, spending two days in Haldimand and Norfolk and three days in Brantford and Brant.

Allie Torrance, a regional harm reduction worker with the program, says it’s a more efficient way of reaching people than, say, opening up an office in one location.

“Our objective is to increase decentralized service and reduce or eliminate those barriers through this program,” Torrance said.

The program is expected to be fully operational by the end of March.

“One of the harm reduction principles is meeting people where they’re at.” TIM MCCLEMONT AIDS NETWORK EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR