Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) is currently undertaking a needs assessment with illicit drug users in Guelph, with a focus on the opioid crisis.
A report to the health unit’s board titled Community Response to Opioid Harms: Considerations for Supervised Consumption Sites states the assessment aims to: increase the health unit’s understanding of substance use behaviours, identify gaps or needs in services/programs, determine the potential role of accessibility and the preferred location of a safe consumption site, and explore the need and suitability for other harm reduction programs and services.
“It’s really meant to be a high-level report on all of the activities that Wellington Dufferin Guelph is doing along with our drug strategy to inform our community response,” said medical officer of health Dr. Nicola Mercer at the March 7 board of meeting.
“If our community needs a permanent safe consumption site … this report would inform that need.”
Mercer said she chose to use the term “safe consumption site” instead of “overdose prevention site” or “safe injection site” because it’s more comprehensive and inclusive of all options.
Between 2003 and 2016 the WDGPH area had higher rates of opioid-related emergency department visits than the Ontario average.
The Wellington County rates were lower than the provincial average, while the Guelph and Dufferin County rates were higher.
In 2017 there were 149 opioid-related emergency department visits in the WDGPH area, while there were only 98 in 2016.
However, the report states that while the increase could be due to more overdoses, increased media attention and mandated early reporting by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care could also be factors.
In 2016 there were 14 opioid-related deaths in the WDGPH area while in both 2015 and 2014 there were eight opioid-related deaths each year. In Ontario, the latest chief coroner report states 61 per cent of opioid-related deaths occur in private residences.
“The benefit of a safe consumption site to impact on those stats is not certain because the only way that you benefit is if those individuals actually attend and use those sites,” Mercer said.
“Most people who use safe consumption sites need to live within a very short distance from safe consumption sites …
“Somewhere between 500 meters to 1km of the safe consumption site and the reason for that would be they need to access it easily in order to use it.”
Board of health member Christine Billings said it looks like more research regarding the need of a safe consumption site is required.
Mercer explained there isn’t a lot of information about the Wellington, Dufferin, Guelph area.
“We don’t have a lot of the answers for who are using, where they’re using, what are they using, what’s our local numbers, what’s our real need, where do they live?” Mercer said.
“There’s just many questions that we are trying to inform. Would they use a safe consumption site?”
Mercer said the needs assessment is meant to answer these questions and inform the community response.
One of the challenges is there are no cities the size of Guelph in North America that have an established safe consumption site.
“If you ask me what will it look like in Guelph, what should it look like? We don’t have that data,” Mercer said.
“There is no information on that out there.”
She said the health unit is following a “methodical evidence-based plan” when evaluating the potential need for a safe consumption site.
“We will continue to do so … trying to do it as expeditiously as we can, but you can’t actually gather all this data and seek community information quickly,” Mercer said.
“It does take time.”
The health unit hopes to have the first phase of the needs assessment, which focuses on Guelph, completed by May.
The second phase will look at the interest of community partners to engage drug users in Wellington and Dufferin Counties.
In the meantime, the Guelph Community Health Centre and the Guelph Family Health Team have partnered to apply for a temporary overdose prevention site at the Guelph Family Health Centre, Mercer said.
The site was approved by the province in advance of the board meeting. While the site has no affiliation with the health unit, Mercer said if asked WDGPH will provide naloxone, needles and syringes.
