Overdose prevention workers want efforts scaled up, not put on hold

Workers on the front lines of the opioid overdose crisis are hoping Ontario Minister of Health Christine Elliott's review of overdose prevention services is a quick one.

Three new sites have been “paused,” and Oasis Program Director at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre Rob Boyd told 1310 NEWS' The Rick Gibbons Show that they need to be allowed to open and respond to the growing crisis.

Elliott says the sites in Thunder Bay, St. Catharines and Toronto will be frozen as the province conducts a review of harm-reduction practices and determines if the sites “have merit.”

The Sandy Hill centre houses one of the City of Ottawa's supervised injection sites.

Boyd said the sites operate in response to an immediate need, and are already supported by a lot of evidence which shows positive effects of the intervention

“It's quite obvious, if you look at the scientific literature, that these services do provide a lot of benefit to the community,” he explained. “So we are hoping that the review comes to a quick conclusion.”

Listen to the full conversation with Rob Boyd:

Boyd said harm reduction services need to be scaled up at this time, not paused for study.

He thinks the increase in overdose deaths being seen in Ottawa and across the province is directly related to the presence of fentanyl in street drugs, and that crisis is escalating.