No more supervised injection site in Timmins as of July 1

After provincial funding didn’t arrive, the supervised injection site in Timmins will cease operating on July 1.

In a news release Wednesday afternoon, the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Cochrane-Timiskaming and Timmins and District Hospital said the Safe Health Site Timmins (SHST) operations will shift to the local CMHA on that date.

“As a result of a continued wait for funding and resources, CMHA-CT will not be able to continue with supervised consumption treatment services,” the release said.

“However, SHST will remain able to provide other imperative services such on-site counselling, referrals to health services, treatment, harm reduction, education and other support services.”

The site will remain open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. but, the release said, that “does not negate that a loss of supervised consumption will detrimentally impact the community.”

“The SHST has consistently demonstrated its effectiveness as an evidence-based solution to connect individuals with treatment and safeguard emergency and health service capacity. Simply put – SHST saves lives.”

Between January and April, “SHST staff responded to 126 overdoses with zero fatalities,” the release said.

“A total of 80 per cent of overdoses required the use of Naloxone, which would have resulted in a fatality without intervention.”

People who relied on the SHST are encouraged to utilize the National Overdose Response Service (NORS) Hotline at 1-888-688-6677, always carry Naloxone and avoid using substances alone.

“Supervised consumption services are just one, vital, part of a larger community drug strategy that includes treatment, education, prevention and enforcement,” the release said.

“We remain optimistic that the province will move quickly to approve this evidence-based, life-saving service.”

Safe Health Site Timmins opened July 4, 2022, “in response to a significant increase in opioid-related deaths in our community,” the release added.

“With an opioid-related mortality rate of 80.2 per 100,000 in 2020, Timmins has been able to reduce this mortality rate to under 60 per 100,000 through the implementation of services like supervised consumption.”

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