New study focuses on impacts of Lethbridge’s Supervised Consumption Site closure

Greene worked on the study alongside Dr. Katharina Maier from the University of Winnipeg and Dr. Marta-Marika Urbanik from the University of Alberta.

She told Lethbridge News Now that initially, the trio was conducting research on safe consumption services in Edmonton and Calgary in 2020, and had planned to expand to Lethbridge. However, by the time the team was prepared to make the trip to Lethbridge, the SCS in the city had closed its doors.

A mobile Overdose Prevention Site (OPS) was opened as a temporary replacement for the SCS. The research team then shifted its focus to study how the SCS closure impacted drug users.

Greene, Maier and Urbanik interviewed 50 individuals in Lethbridge.

Greene explained, “We deployed traditional fieldwork to do this study. We did not recruit people who had connections to existing services.”

She continued, “We simply entered into the downtown Lethbridge and spent 10 to 12 hours or more each day, really just hanging around and getting to know people who are also spending time downtown, so that’s how we met our participants.”

Greene added that all study participants remained anonymous.

“We had to get ethical approval from each of our universities to conduct this study. We obviously did not collect any information that would identify them in the future through our work.”

Greene said there were three key findings that came out of the study, noting that, “the closure of the safe consumption site, you know, broadly speaking for many of these individuals, was quite harmful.”

SMOKING

Greene noted that study participants told the team that the smoking of drugs was eliminated once the SCS closed and the mobile OPS was opened.

She said that at the SCS, “There was a space to safely smoke drugs.”

“That was eliminated with the mobile overdose prevention site, so it is strictly for injection and you know, potentially inhalation through snorting, but smoking was a big one for many of our participants, so they were no longer accessing a safe site because of this.”

Greene noted that as a result, participants “were now smoking those drugs in public spaces.”

LOCATION

Greene told LNN that the location of the mobile OPS was raised as a concern by participants. The former SCS operated out of a building on 1 Ave. South in Lethbridge. The mobile OPS is located outside of the Lethbridge Shelter and Resource Centre on 2 Ave. North.

Greene said individuals they spoke with, “were uncomfortable going from downtown on the sort of other side of the [Stafford Drive S.] bridge, crossing the bridge and going into the more industrial area where the site was located.”

She said the shelter is a higher-traffic area, “but many of the folks were really nervous about going into that area.”

Greene noted, “They felt unsafe there, because of conflict and potential violence, but also just in walking from the downtown to that site, particularly over the bridge.”

She added, “This was a location where they felt very vulnerable to passing motorists. There were a number of instances where folks were explaining to us that people were throwing things at them from cars, you know, yelling profanity [and] racial slurs, so walking there alone was a safety concern, but then once in the area itself, many folks were uncomfortable about that as well.”

MORE SERVICES

Greene said people are using the mobile OPS and “it’s an important interim public health measure.”

“However, it is not capturing the same number of folks that it could be if the sites were expanded or if we, you know, simply reopened the [supervised] consumption site.”

The third finding from the study revolved around the services that were offered by ARCHES at the SCS.

Greene said, “It provided space to, you know, safely use drugs, but also access on-site other services, which was really very valued [and] because of that, it drew in more people and became a place where people could connect with others, which is extremely important.”

“An important piece of improving one’s health and one’s life is having social connections, and that site was able to provide that sort of, unintended benefit to the clients, which is really very important in terms of a public health perspective,” adds Greene.

She said the study concluded that supervised consumption services are valuable in addressing drug use in the community. “If we want to talk about recovery and we want to talk about treatment, really what we need to do is provide a greater level of service and a level of service that is capturing folks who are, sort of, in the midst of their substance use disorder,” Greene commented.

She said that not everyone is prepared to seek treatment for their addiction.

“Providing a safe place to consume while also offering services that might improve someone’s quality of life, those are the kinds of things that can encourage someone to take part in treatment and frankly, reinforce a long-term recovery because that’s really what we’re looking for.”

Greene added, ““We cannot do that in the absence of providing the necessary services.”

The full report from Greene and her team can be viewed online. Greene said the team is currently conducting similar research in other cities across Canada.

by Justin Goulet

New study focuses on impacts of Lethbridge’s Supervised Consumption Site closure

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