The City of Hamilton has decided on a second safe injection site location
- Craig Clark
- 11 Dec 2019
The City of Hamilton has decided on the location of a second safe injection site after eight months of searching. The site will be located in an area of the city that has been most impacted by the opioid crisis.
General manager of safe and healthy communities, Paul Johnson, made the announcement last Friday at a committee meeting. The city has been looking for a second location since March.
Permanent safe injection site secured in Hamilton, will also serve as new day centre https://t.co/RSsSA0tOtr
— Alternatives for Youth (@AYHamiltonONT) December 9, 2019
The exact location of the site was not revealed during the announcement and will be made public after the city submits an application to the province’s health ministry.
Safe injection sites are referred to by the government as consumption and treatment services (CTS). A CTS is a safe place for people to use drugs under the supervision of health-care professionals who are trained to respond to overdoses on site.
The decision to open a second CTS location has been praised by city councillors and other people at the committee meeting, as the opioid crisis has been consistently growing in the city.
A report from Ontario’s auditor general says that the number of opioid related deaths in Hamilton is 50% higher than in Ottawa. People being served by the already existing CTS in Hamilton is about eight times fewer than Ottawa. The second location will hopefully encourage more people to use a CTS.
In 2018, the city saw a 40% increase from 2017 in opioid-related deaths. Hamilton had 123 confirmed opioid-related deaths last year compared to 88 deaths in 2017.
The first CTS opened in June 2018 at the Hamilton Urban Core Community Centre on Rebecca Street. Hamilton Paramedic Services has responded to 551 suspected opioid overdoses so far this year.
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