New supervised injection site already eyeing expansion

Rob Boyd wants to smile now that his supervised injection site is finally open, but he's keenly aware that the demand for the new clinic is a sign that Ottawa's opioid crisis is growing worse, notbetter.

"It's a strange feeling right now,"Boydsaid Wednesday."I was expecting to feel very celebratory, but it's hard to feelcelebratoryright nowbecause we're seeing this escalation in overdose and overdose deaths."

Boyd is the director ofOasis, which opened its doors at theSandy Hill Community Health Centre Monday, becoming the city's first permanent supervised drug injection site.

The clinic, at 221 Nelson St., joins two temporary sites already operating within Ottawa one on Clarence Street, run by Ottawa Public Health in collaboration with Oasis, and anotheroperated by Ottawa Inner City Health from inside a trailer next to the Shepherds of Good Hopeon Murray Street, alsoin the ByWardMarket.

Boyd had hoped to open hisclinic six months ago, but saidhis teamfaced additionalhurdlesincluding demands forarchitectural drawings anddetailed plans.

"A permanent site just takes longer. There was a process that wasso involved that wasn't required for our interim site, or the one at Inner City Health," Boyd said.

How it works

As they enter the supervised injection site, clients are asked to first register, thoughthey're allowed to use an alias if they prefer to remain anonymous. They're then led into a room with five stainless steel stations, each equipped with the various materials they might need to inject drugs, including a syringe, sterile water, filters and a cooker.

We do know that there are people out there who are unable or unwilling to inject themselves, and they would not be eligible to use this service.- Rob Boyd

Anurse ispresent duringand immediately following the injection.

"We encourage people to stick around for about 20 minutes afterwards,"Boyd said."The longer they stick around, the more likely they mightattachthemselves to some of the otherserviceswe offer."

Eight clients have so far visited the site since it opened, Boyd said, though he expects that number to rise substantially once word gets around.

He's also aiming to expand the clinic's opening hours currently 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m..

Boyd estimates that at its peakthe clinic will be able to service10 clients per hour, or 120 clients per day.

How does the site work?

6 years ago

Duration 0:53

Rob Boyd, Oasis program director at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, explains how to use the new safe injection site.

Looking to expand services

While the act of injecting fentanylis illegal, Oasis and other supervised injection sites are allowed to operate thanks to an exemption from Health Canada.

Howeverthatexemption is limited to facilities where users inject without assistance, and forbids the snorting or swallowing of drugs.

"We do know that there are people out there who are unable or unwilling to inject themselves, and they would not be eligible to use this service,"Boyd said."We think that is something that we should easily consider being able to permit."

Boyd said he's contemplating asking Health Canada to allow supervised snorting and swallowing, as well as permitting assistedinjections.

"What we're lookingtowardsis doing client-assisted injection, so that people couldbring somebody in to do the injection. We wouldn't be having our staff dothat."

"When we started this sevenyears ago,Oxycontinwas the drug that we were concernedabout,and we were trying toestablishthis service based on that. I can't emphasizeenoughhowmuch illicit fentanylhaschanged that."