Size, staffing among changes coming to Guelph overdose prevention site

Staffing size and shorter wait times are among improvements that are soon coming to Guelph's only overdose prevention site.

The recommendations are part of a report fromWellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, who looked into just how well the site was working.

"This is a population that often experiences stigma in other healthcare environments," Raechelle Devereaux, executive director of the Guelph Community Health Centre told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo. And so providinghigh quality care to the clients who access it is top priority for the organization.

Now, it is now looking to implement a new staffing model, newclinical facilities, and to servemore peopleat one time.

Devereaux and her team are also working with the ministry of health to make more booths available to clients who may need them, a move that should help make wait times much shorter.

The recommendations were made based onchallenges that staff and clients at the site identified, with regard to space and hours of operation, wait times and limited staff.

Located in the Guelph Community Health Centre, some clients said the site was easily accessible, but said the location was sometimes too small for the volume of clients needing services, and that there sometimes weren't enough staff on hand.

Some also raised a privacy issue because of where the site is located within the building.

"One of their concerns about that was the fact that they would sometimes be waiting in places that were visible," Jennifer Macleod, manager of health analytics with Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.

Strengths

But the report also highlighted many of the strengths of the program, including the safe environment, accessibility to harm reduction supplies, as well as the quality of on-site medical care at the site.

"Clients were saying that the staff were very friendly, caring and helpful," Macleod said. "They found it to be a welcoming and safe environment."

New changes are already underway and both Macleod and Devereaux hope they will go a long way to improving service at the site.