New, enhanced overdose prevention site announced for Nanaimo

“Island Health is going to be co-locating a lot of primary healthcare services, outreach community services to really build that continuum of care,” Malcolmson said, noting treatment options and referrals will be among on-site programs.

It’s expected the facility, described by the province as a wellness and recovery centre, will be built up in the coming months, Malcolmson said.

“Over the next year this big space will be fully built out and we’ll have permanent supervised consumption, drug testing, connections to treatment and maybe as many as 30 Island Health Workers working out of the space.”

Local politicians and stakeholders discuss plans at the site of a pending overdose prevention site, which will be renovated and eventually include wrap-around services provided by Island Health. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Space inside the two-storey building will be for clients who inject illicit substances, while a fenced-off area outside is reserved for those who inhale.

The local CMHA chapter operates an overdose prevention and supervised consumption site on nearby Wesley St, which will close next week.

The Wesley St. facility has overseen injection drug users since 2017, however the facility doesn’t serve growing numbers of clients who prefer to inhale illicit substances.

Jason Harrison, CMHA Mid Island executive director, said their board made the decision to purchase the Albert St. building earlier this year, comprising of 19,000 sq/ft.

He said a sufficient harm reduction service catering to the needs of local drug users has been lacking in Nanaimo.

“When we first started it was primarily injection use, but very quickly we saw a shift in the type of use and we didn’t have the ability to accomodate that over there. We will have a larger capacity when we get to the larger constructed site.”

Harrison said the intention is for the new overdose prevention site to stick their existing operating hours of 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week.

He said it’s their hope is that members of the peer-led service on Nicol St. operated by the Nanaimo Area of Drug Users (NANDU) to use their operation instead.

Harrison noted their staff takes pride in relationship building, noting they know most of NANDU’s members.

“We’re going to encourage them to come over and use the space over here, ultimately it’s people’s choice, but we’re hoping that we’re going to provide the service that they need and this will be the place that they use,” Harrison said.

CMHA Mid Island chapter executive director Jason Harrison said for years they have been examining ways to enhance harm reduction services in Nanaimo. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

The volunteer-run illicit drug advocacy service on Nicol St. near Farquhar St. opened earlier this year, involving hundreds of members belonging to the group known as Nanaimo and Area Network of Drug Users (NANDU).

Ann Livingston, a lead advocate for NANDU, has previously stated it’s unclear if the operation will continue in its current form after the new overdose prevention site opens.

NANDU is legally operating under a Ministry of Health order established when a still existing provincial health emergency was declared in 2016 in response to growing drug toxicity deaths.

Numerous and consistent complaints have been made about the social impacts the NANDU site has had on the mixed-use neighbourhood, which includes many homes and businesses in close proximity.

A BC Coroners Service report earlier this year examining drug toxicity deaths stated illicit drug users in the province preferred to inhale drugs as opposed to inject by nearly a two-to-one margin.

Public health data collected over multiple years has shown overdose prevention sites are a safer venue, with no deaths reported at the sites this year.

Plans for a new overdose prevention site in Nanaimo were acknowledged by the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions more than two months ago when NanaimoNewsNOW profiled a contentious peer-led drug consumption site on Nicol St.

Data released earlier this week from the BC Coroners Service showed 59 deaths from illicit drug toxicity were reported in Nanaimo through the first 10 months of 2022.

It eclipses the record number from all of 2017, where 56 people lost their lives.

Between January and October 2022, 126 people died across the entire central Vancouver Island region from drug toxicity.

The tally means more people lost their lives in the first 10 months of 2022, than did in all of 2021 when 123 people died.

According to Island Health more than 42,000 visits have been recorded to the Wesley St. overdose prevention site since 2017, including more than 3,100 so far this year.

Zero fatalities have been associated to any sanctioned overdose prevention site in the province, according to MLA Sheila Malcolmson.

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by NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

New, enhanced overdose prevention site announced for Nanaimo

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