Just off Main Street in downtown Winnipeg, a new initiative is being carried out to aid in the prevention of drug overdose deaths, which have increased during the epidemic.
On Sunday, Sunshine House navigated its third day of operating Manitoba’s first formal overdose prevention site — one that’s being operated out of an RV the organization purchased over the summer.
Levi Foy, executive director of Sunshine House, told Global News on Sunday that numerous people have picked up harm reduction products like clean needles, condoms, and safer smoking kits since last Friday.
People can also test drugs there and use them.
“They can test their supply on the site or they can take them to a place where they’re more comfortable and test their supply so that they can be aware of the presence of either benzos or fentanyl in their substances, so they can make better decisions,” Foy said.
Between Tuesday and Sunday, the team intends to focus on providing services to the downtown, Point Douglas, West Broadway, and West End neighbourhoods, according to Foy.
“In the event that there is a bad reaction, we can step in right away and perhaps stop any significant harm or loss of life.”
Sunshine House received the Urgent Public Health Needs Sites exemption from Health Canada on Thursday, the nonprofit revealed last week on social media. After months of waiting for approval, the mobile overdose prevention site finally opened its doors on Friday.
From joy to anxiety, Foy described the experience as “simply (an) overwhelming variety of feelings that I don’t have the ability to deal with.”
The mobile testing unit, according to Marion Willis of Saint Boniface Street Links, is urgently needed and long overdue in the city, particularly in light of the fact that this year is certain to break previous records for overdose deaths.
We don’t want to set records like that, she remarked.
Drug testing can stop deaths by enabling users to decide for themselves if they wish to consume a substance.
It is a very successful method of harm reduction. It is also instructive.
St. Boniface Street Links founder and executive director Willis believes that advances in enforcement, intervention, and prevention, as well as collaboration to create a harm reduction strategy, are essential.
In order to develop a community-based plan to control Winnipeg’s overdose problem and toxic drug supply, Sunshine House worked with the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network and other organisations to create the overdose prevention site, according to Foy.
The project, which isn’t considered a safe consumption site because it isn’t staffed with health professionals, received funding through Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program to cover labour and some supplies, they said.
This is run by peers or people who use or have used drugs, according to Foy.
The big capital costs, such as the RV itself and a more precise drug testing device, were not covered by (Health Canada). We had to pay for that out of our own contributions.
More specialised equipment that would provide consumers with a percentage breakdown of what is in their substances is what Sunshine House is raising money for.
Neither the local nor provincial governments presently provide funding for the overdose prevention centre.
All that we’re asking of the province, according to Foy, is to merely give us permission to carry out this kind of job. We’re simply requesting several approaches to a very complex human situation.
“Maybe we can maybe investigate other funding options if we can establish necessity or if, maybe we don’t need a place like this.”
Winnipeg sees the opening of Manitoba’s first official overdose prevention facility.
About Author
