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Canadian Aboriginal Network Skills Building and Annual General Meeting - June 14th-17th, 2010
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Enoch, AB T7X 3Y3
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Enoch, Alberta
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HIV in the News
Centres will have needles for drug addicts
Derek Spalding, Daily News
Published: Monday, March 22, 2010
Drug addicts on in Nanaimo will soon have sterile needles and other drug paraphernalia available to them at most front-line health centres.
The initiative is part of the Vancouver Island Health Authority's strategy to reduce the spread of diseases among drug users by distributing the supplies from about 60 centres authority-wide. Approximately 12 sites in Nanaimo have been short-listed, but final selections will not be made until June or July.
Widespread distribution also takes the focus off of a single site, which can become hangouts for the addicts who regularly use the facilities. A fixed needle exchange site in Victoria shut down in 2008 because it turned into a hub for users, who reportedly disturbed neighbours. VIHA has had difficulties with needle exchanges in Nanaimo as well, but the Harris House on Wesley Street is widely accepted as a model of success.
Needle exchanges will work much like any other harm reduction for crack pipes and condoms, according to VIHA spokeswoman Suzanne Germain. There will be exemptions for those sites that are completely inappropriate, but there must be good reason.
"If you're a front-line office, you will make harm reduction supplies available, unless there is a compelling reason not to," Germain said. "Our executive is very much in support of this. You will have to have a good argument to get out of it."
Sites will include public health clinics, outpatient offices and mental health and addictions offices. The model has worked in other health authorities and is what VIHA's chief medical health officer, Dr. Richard Stanwick, refers to as needle exchange in a drawer.
"It makes supplies more distributed and more accessible to clients," Germain said. "Not every body who is a drug user is in downtown Victoria or . . .near Harris house in Nanaimo."
Harm-reduction policies that aim to reduce the spread of disease among addicts are similar to laws that force people to not smoke near buildings or those that force people to wear seat belts, Germain explained. Diseases like HIV AIDS or Hepatitis C are severely painful for the victims and they are extremely expensive for all taxpayers.
"It helps reduce the spread of disease, which ultimately cost the health care system a significant amount of money," Germain said.
Aboriginal Owned, Staffed,and Operated in Central Alberta
Our Mission
Service provision on a status blind basis, that allows the marginalized and underserved population, who are or are at risk for increased risk factors to HIV/AIDS and/or HCV infection, including Homelessness, Substance Abuse or Violence, the opportunity to have equal access to services and resources that are appropriate socially, spiritually and culturally and that promotes quality of life in a respectful manner, through harm reduction practices and programming to reduce the risk of infection of HIV/AIDS and/or HCV infection in these populations.
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