Overdose prevention site coming to Guelph Community Health Centre

A temporary overdose prevention site will operate out of Guelph Community Health Centre (GCHC) by the end of April, with two injection booths and on-site medical staff, thatit will run for six months.

The Ministry of Health recently approved the joint application made with GCHC, the Guelph Family Health Team and ARCH, a HIV/AIDS community resource centre.

• Take a tour of London's Temporary Overdose Prevention Site
• Region looks at 3 locations for supervised drug injection sites

"We don't always recognize that opioid addiction and addiction in general does affect smaller communities,"RaechelleDevereaux, executive director of GCHC, toldCBC'sThe Morning Edition.

"I think that's what really positioned us to have an opportunity to prevent the increase of overdose deaths we're seeing at a provincial level and we are really hopeful the overdose prevention site will play a role in helping us do that."

Prime location

The overdose prevention site will operate out of GCHC's downtown locationbecause the centre already provides a number of services for people with health issues, including addiction.

"They come to our site already to access our primary care services, to see doctors and nurse practitioners, to access the rapid access addiction clinic that is also located at our downtown location." Devereaux said.

• Kitchener mom who lost her son to fentanyl on a mission to tell his story

"They are also already visiting to access our needle exchange program."

Syringes distributed by a harm reduction program at the GCHC downtown locationsaw 35 visitors each dayand distributed almost278,000 syringes betweenFebruary 2017 andJanuary 2018.

What the site will look like

At the upcoming site, services will range from supervised injection, distribution of harm reduction supplies, the distribution of naloxoneand the disposal of used supplies.

Devereauxsaid that injection will be the only form of consumption at the site, but staff will look at intranasal and peer-assisted injectionas future options.

Aside from medical staff and injection booths, there willalso be a quiet space available for individuals to use.

GCHCwilltake the overdose prevention site a step further by connectingindividuals withaddictions servicesand other services that are offered at their downtown centre.

Devereauxsaid that the overdose prevention site will operate for six months starting end of April or early May, but Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health and the Wellington Drug Strategy are working on a needsassessment to potentially implement a more permanent site.

"We will really look to those experts to really guide what is the longer term need, also where is the longer term location," she said.