Responding to the Opioid Crisis

The Calgary Drop-In Centre is exploring recovery-oriented services which can save lives.

Here in Alberta and across Canada, the effects of the opioid crisis have had a devastating effect throughout our communities. Sadly, in 2021, 500 families in Calgary lost a loved one due to a suspected drug poisoning. While there has been a slight reduction in overall opioid related deaths across our province, we are still faced with an opioid crisis at our shelter and surrounding communities.

This is also the reality at the Calgary Drop-In Centre. Back in 2018, the DI responded to six drug poisonings a month. Fast-forward to 2022, and we are on track to see an average of 125 drug poisonings per month. That is about 4.25 drug poisonings per day.

Female friend or family sitting and hold hands during cheer up to mental depress man, Psychologist provides mental aid to patient. PTSD Mental health concept.

The current approach of abstinence and reversals needs to change, as reactively responding to drug poisonings is not sustainable. With only 70 publicly funded detox beds available in Calgary, options are limited even for those who want to make a change.

Dedicated recovery-oriented programming is required to address the opioid crisis that presently overwhelms both our shelter and our community, and can provide relief and hope for those suffering directly and for the frontline staff who have provided the necessary emergency services throughout the crisis.

Services being explored as part of a recovery-oriented system of care.

Overdose Prevention

Withdrawal Management

Transitional and Recovery Beds

Harm Reduction Education

Community Outreach Support

The DI was approached by the Government of Alberta to consider offering recovery-oriented services. We recognized the benefit this could provide those we serve and wanted explore the potential of a full continuum of services such as overdose prevention, withdrawal management, recovery and transitional beds, harm reduction education, and community outreach support.

The new services would in theory be supported by doctors, nurses, and other peer and social supports. They could enhance the DI’s current services and would only be intended for those accessing the services of the DI.

Recovery-oriented services at the DI would be a small but important piece in improving community safety by addressing mental health and addictions challenges through providing pathways to recovery, treatment, and housing.

Community safety is a top priority for us. To help provide education around what this potential recovery-oriented system of care might look like and to begin a dialogue with our neighbours, we will be hosting multiple community information sessions throughout the month of July. During the course of those information sessions, the new East Village Safety Hub was announced as another measure towards community safety in the surrounding area.

“A partnership between CMLC, The City of Calgary, Calgary Police Service and the Alpha House Society’s Downtown Outreach Addictions Partnership (DOAP), the East Village Safety Hub provides social supports and uniformed officer presence to better respond to the neighbourhood’s evolving social needs.” To learn more about the Easy Village Safety Hub, please click here.

Have any questions or feedback for us? Let us know using the feedback form below or email us at CommunityFeedback@thedi.ca.

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Want to learn more about recovery-oriented services? This list of articles, from a wide range of sources, helped to inform our decisions along the way.

- A cost analysis of overdose management at a supervised consumption site in Calgary, Canada – Jennifer Jackson – 2020

- Integrating supervised consumption into a continuum of care for people who use drugs – Ayden Scheim, Dan Werb – 2018

- Lessons learned from the opioid crisis across the pillars of the Canadian drugs and substances strategy – Sheena Taha, Bridget Maloney-Hall, Jane Buxton – 2019

- “It’s not just injecting drugs”: Supervised consumption sites and the social determinants of health – Nick Kerman, Stephanie Manoni-Millar, Luc Cormier, Tali Cahill, John Sylvestre – 2020

- Supervised injection services: What has been demonstrated? A systematic literature review – Chloe Potier, Vincent Laprevote, Francoise Dubois-Arber, Olivier Cottencin, Benhamin Rolland – 2014

- Public health and public order outcomes associated with supervised drug consumption facilities: A systematic review – Mary Clare Kennedy, Mohammad Karamouzian, Thomas Kerr – 2017

- Impact of a medically supervised safer injecting facility on drug dealing and other drug-related crime – Evan Wood, Mark W Tyndall, Calvin Lai, Julio SG Montaner, Thomas Kerr – 2006

- Changes in public order after the opening of a medically supervised safer injecting facility for illicit injection drug users – Evan Wood, Thomas Kerr, Will Small, Kathy Li, David C. Marsh, Julio S.G. Montaner, Mark W. Tyndall – 2004

- Vancouver’s INSITE service and other supervised injection sites: What has been learned from research? – Final report of the expert advisory committee on Supervised Injection Site Research – Health Canada – 2008

- Supervised consumption sites and crime: Scrutinizing the methodological weaknesses and aberrant results of a government report in Alberta, Canada – James D. Livingston – 2021

- Impact: A socio-economic review of supervised consumption sites in Alberta – Alberta Health, Government of Alberta – 2020

- Sheldon Chumir Supervised Consumption Site – Monthly Reports – Alberta Health Services – Ongoing

- Crime & Disorder near the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre’s Supervised Consumption Services (SCS) Facility – 2018 Statistical Overview / Q1 2019 Statistical Overview / Q2 2019 Statistical Overview / Q3 2019 Statistical Overview