Special Features - Overdose Prevention Jan 2020

Campbell River Mirror

www.campbellrivermirror.com

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 A11

Overdose Prevention Resource Guide

‘Let’s mitigate disease transmission. Let’s mitigate death’ MIKE DAVIES Campbell River Mirror

One day last week, Campbell River’s Overdose Prevention Site saved the lives of four members of our community. But they didn’t have any time to congratulate themselves, just as they didn’t have time to celebrate the lives they saved the day before. Because there were more people to save the next day. And the day after. And the day after that. Because that’s what they do. 365 days per year. The centre is run by AVI Health and Community Services Campbell River and overseen by interim manager Sarah Delaney-Spindler. It’s a place, she says, with few – but extremely dedicated – staff, making a huge difference. While an Overdose Prevention Site, or OPS, is a lesser-known term than “Safe Injection Site,” it’s a fairly widely-held misconception that’s what AVI Campbell River is, Delaney-Spindler says. When she explains to people what they do at AVI, she admits she’ll say to people, “it’s like a Safe Injection Site,” but only because it’s a term more people recognize. But while they have similar functions in some ways, the Campbell River OPS is much more than just a place where people can access a clean drug supply and consume it in a sterile, safe environment. “Yes, we provide an Overdose Preven-

tion Site where folks can use substances,” Delaney-Spindler says, showing me the two stations in the Overdose Prevention Room (OPR) we’re sitting in, ready to leave should someone need to use it. The stations have clean, medical-looking metal tables and are well lit by bright overhead lamps. “But we also have the positive wellness program, which supports people living with HIV or Hep C, we do harm reduction and distribution – so supplying folks with clean needles, crack pipes, meth pipes, condoms, any sort of safer-injection education, naloxone plus training – as well as safer sex education, ,” Delaney-Spindler continues. “We also have an education outreach team who goes out into the community and provides education to local businesses, the college, ambulance, RCMP, you name it.”

And unfortunately, they’re busier than ever. “We are definitely seeing a trend up in OPR use, as well as supplies going out,” Delaney-Spindler says. “Just yesterday we had 33 folks use this room. And we had four overdoses. That’s four people who would have died yesterday if they’d been using in an alley.” But even Delaney-Spindler is conflicted on whether or not more people using the site is a positive thing. In one way, it means they’re saving more lives, but in another way, it reflects, most likely, that more people are turning to hard drugs to cope with the issues in their lives. “We certainly have a lot of regulars, but when I look at the numbers and compare it to what I actually see while I’m here, I think that more people are using the site, rather than it being

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AVI offers naloxone training to anyone in the community that is interested and gives a naloxone kit to everyone who completes the training, but that’s just one of the important roles the organization fills within the community. Black Press file photo just the same people coming more often,” Delaney-Spindler says. “If you look at numbers like our vacancy rate in Campbell River, it’s super scary, and not just because that’s the amount of available housing, but it’s also all the circles around that. People who are on the borderline, or are at-risk, they are so much more vulnerable to crossing that line from ‘vulnerable’ into ‘poverty’ and ending up on

the streets. “So while it’s great that people are utilizing the service, but it’s not great that that’s a trend in our

community,” she continues. “But at least we’re here.” While it’s an extremely rewarding thing she’s doing,

and she loves that she gets to help people every day, there is a downside, Delaney-Spindler says: There will always

be people who don’t think they should be doing what they’re doing. Continued on A22

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