Safe Health Site Timmins shares statistics from its first month of operation

Safe Health Site Timmins -- a place to inject pre-obtained drugs -- has been operating since the beginning of July.

During its first month, there were 669 visits and about half of the visits were to seek harm reduction services.

Officials said most visits were made by men and the peak time of day was 4-6 p.m. They said no one experienced an overdose at the site and two people requested withdrawal management services.

"It does definitely provide a service that can save lives," said Patrick Nowak, manager of the addictions program at Timmins and District Hospital.

"We are hoping to see an impact on 911 calls and things like that, but at the end of it all, this is a small part in a much larger need.”

Approximately 65 per cent of the clients at the site said they were consuming fentanyl, a substance health officials said has contributed to many deaths in the city.

In fact, the Porcupine Health Unit issued a release this week to warn the public there's been an increase in suspected opioid overdoses.

"We just want to be alerting community members, people who use substances and their friends and family that our drug supply continues to be toxic with increasing levels of fentanyl," said Amy Haapakoski, harm reduction outreach coordinator for the Porcupine Health Unit.

Nowak said addictions don't stop when the injection site closes for the day so there could be overdoses that happen overnight.

"We don’t offer inhalation services at this site right ... so if people are, say, smoking their substances, there’s no real safe place for them to do that," said Nowak.

Haapakoski urged people at the very least to not consume substances alone if they can't access Safe Health Site Timmins and asks that they have Naloxone at the ready.