Blogs

International Overdose Awareness Day is a global event held on August 31st each year to raise awareness of overdose and reduce the stigma of a drug-related death. Join us at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin at 11:30 for the Ottawa event.

For more info, follow Overdose Awareness Day Ottawa on Facebook.

This Wednesday for World Hepatitis Day there will be an event at Ottawa City Hall with individual consultations, testing & vaccination as well as entertainment & a complimentary BBQ.

CSCS and DUAL will be tabling with info on harm reduction & SIS, so come on out and say hello!

When: 12-2pm, July 27th
Where: Ottawa City Hall 
RSVP on Facebook
 

Thursday June 23, 11am - 1pm
Minto Park, 315 Elgin St., Ottawa
RSVP on Facebook

Once again Ottawa will join people in over 100 cities around the world that believe “the harms caused by the war on drugs can no longer be ignored.” This is the fourth annual global Support Don’t Punish day of action. Each city takes their own issues and actions under the umbrella of ending the war on drugs across the globe.

In Ottawa this year we will be calling attention to the need for a ‘Good Samaritan Policy’. A Good Samaritan Policy is when there’s a written rule that protects people from drug possession charges when calling and waiting for emergency services in an overdose situation. Too often, when someone overdoses people hesitate or don’t call emergency health services for fear of being charged by police. Let’s legalize supporting our friends in emergency situations.

Learn more about the global Support Don't Punish campaign.

Have you been involved with the Campaign for Safer Consumption Sites in Ottawa? Or are you interested in becoming more involved? Please fill out our Meeting Accessibility Survey and give us your feedback.

The Sandy Hill Community Health Centre is seeking input from community members on a service model for supervised injection at their main location on 221 Nelson Street in Ottawa.

When: Mondays in April, 6:30-8:00 pm
Location: 221 Nelson Street.

The proposed service will complement the wide range of addictions and mental health services offered by the Centre and is intended to reduce the frequency of public injecting, overdose death and behaviours associated with the spread of HIV and hepatitis C.

Please contact [email protected] to register for a consultation. No media please.

Via the Sandy Hill CHC Facebook page

The PROUD study is a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project that examines the HIV risk environment among people who use drugs in Ottawa. From March to October 2013, 593 people who reported using injection drugs or smoking crack cocaine were enrolled through street-based recruitment in the ByWard Market neighbourhood, an area of the city with a high concentration of public drug use and homelessness. Participants completed a demographic, behavioural, and risk environment questionnaire and were offered HIV point-of-care testing. The study undertook descriptive and univariate analyses to estimate potential use of an SIS by PWID in Ottawa and to explore risk behaviours and features of the risk environment faced by potential users of the service.

The PROUD study concluded that an SIS in Ottawa would be well-positioned to reach its target group of highly marginalized PWID and reduce drug-related harms. The application of CBPR methods to a large-scale quantitative survey supported the mobilization of communities of PWID to identify and advocate for their own service needs, creating an enabling environment for harm reduction action.

Read the full published study here.

September 30th, 2015 is the 4th year since the Supreme Court of Canada made the decision to keep Vancouver’s Insite open.

CSCS with many partner agencies will be hosting a community discussion with students, nurses, activists, researchers, and people who use drugs on the need for supervised consumption services in Ottawa. 

Time: Wednesday, September 30, 11:30am - 1:00pm
Location: 147B Fauteux Hall, University of Ottawa Campus (map)
R.S.V.P. on Facebook 

Refreshments provided as well as whisper translation in French.

Partner agencies:

• Association des étudiants(es) en service social (ADESS)
• Coalition of Nurses and Nursing Students for Supervised Injection Services
• Drug User Advocacy League (DUAL)
• Participatory Research in Ottawa: Understanding Drugs (PROUD)
• AIDS Committee of Ottawa (ACO)

On September 15th from 6-9pm, CSCS will present a workshop on harm reduction and supervised drug consumption practices at 48 rue Frontenac in Hull as part of OPIRG-GRIPO's ALT101 week.

Harm reduction is an action that takes shape in many different ways. Safer drug consumption is not limited to the drug, but also includes harm reduction actions such as drinking water, using with a friend, creating stigma-free spaces. Ranging from institutional services to personal actions, during this workshop, we will discuss a variety of harm reduction services and practices that can be used for safer drug consumption. This includes, but is not limited to, supervised injection sites. By discussing the various ways that harm reduction is used, we will connect personal strategies with the broader need for a diversity of harm reduction services, and supervised injection sites in particular, in Ottawa. The workshop will be interactive so we can learn from each other about what harm reduction and safer drug consumption means.

This event will also include a workshop on Deconstructing Intoxication Culture: Community, Accessibility and Sober Spaces presented by From the Margins.

Ce sera un événement bilingue en français et anglais. Please RSVP on Facebook.

On International Overdose Awareness Day, Campaign for Safer Consumption Sites and Drug Users Advocacy League will challenge Ottawa’s political leaders for their lack of action to prevent fatal drug overdoses. Community members will gather at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin Street on Aug. 31 from 11:30am-12:30pm to advocate for better overdose prevention and to challenge stigma.

When Mayor Jim Watson proclaimed Aug. 31 International Overdose Awareness Day in 2013, he recognized that Ottawa was losing one citizen every 11 days to drug overdose. This year the Mayor will be acknowledging a death every eight days in his city. The mayor has never attended International Overdose Awareness Day.

An estimated 45 people died from an overdose in Ottawa in 2014. At Insite, Canada’s first supervised injection site, not a single person has died on site from an overdose – and fatal overdoses in the vicinity of Insite have dropped by a third. Health-care professionals at SIS can intervene in overdoses immediately and encourage safer drug use outside of the facility.

Montreal and Toronto’s public health authorities are currently pursuing supervised injection services, while Ottawa Public Health has only recently recognized that they may be useful. Drug Users Advocacy League, an Ottawa collective of people who use drugs and their allies will be presenting consumer demands including SIS in Ottawa.

This year the Mayor’s proclamation states “We recognize the value of every human life and we honour those lost by discussing the harms associated with drug consumption, the risk of overdose and proven strategies to avoid preventable death and injury.” Hopefully Mayor Watson will live up to these words and recognize the significant evidence in support of SIS. If not, the Campaign for Safer Consumption Sites in Ottawa will continue to raise awareness and prompt further local action.

On Monday August 31st at 11:30am, the Ottawa community will gather at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin Street to mark International Overdose Awareness Day and commemorate those who have been affected by overdose. Get more information by liking Overdose Awareness Day Ottawa on Facebook.

OD Day is a global event that aims to raise awareness of overdose and reduce the stigma of a drug-related death. It also acknowledges the grief felt by families and friends remembering those who have met with death or permanent injury as a result of drug overdose.

Overdose Awareness Day spreads the message that the tragedy of overdose death is preventable. The theme for 2015 is Rethink and Remember. Learn more here.