Fighting Fatality: Insight into British Columbia’s Sanctioning of Overdose Prevention Sites

Davidson, Nicole

doi:10.13162/hro-ors.v8i2.4186

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 3 publications

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“…Shortly after its establishment, it was granted a legal exemption under the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which legally permitted it to operate. In 2017, the Government of Canada took a major step and amended existing legislation to make it easier for facilities to apply for permission to operate SCS (Tsang 2020;Davidson 2020). Despite the passing of this law, only five of ten provinces account for all SCS across Canada.…”

Section: Brief Description Of the Health Policy Reformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Policy Context and Conditions Necessary for the Establishment of Supervised Consumption Sites in Canada: A Comparative Analysis of Alberta and Manitoba

Manson-Singer

Allin

2020

HRO-ORS

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The establishment of supervised consumption sites (SCS) is one policy approach used to address Canada's growing, national opioid epidemic. Despite the abundance of evidence which demonstrates the numerous public health benefits gained from the existence of SCS, only five of ten Canadian provinces have established SCS. Using Alberta and Manitoba as comparators, the paper seeks to explain the difference in policy outcomes. The paper begins with a brief overview of the history of harm reduction policy in Canada and establishes what the goals of the Alberta and Manitoba governments were in their respective policy approaches to respond to the opioid epidemic. Using John Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework, this paper compares the political and policy contexts of Alberta and Manitoba to determine what factors have contributed to the divergence in policy outcomes, whereby Alberta has established SCS while Manitoba has not. The comparative analysis reveals that the framing of the opioid epidemic as a public health matter, the alignment of the establishment of SCS with the provincial government's values, and political will are all necessary conditions for the establishment of SCS. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of these results for the establishment of SCS in other Canadian provinces.

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Section: Brief Description Of the Health Policy Reformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Policy Context and Conditions Necessary for the Establishment of Supervised Consumption Sites in Canada: A Comparative Analysis of Alberta and Manitoba

Manson-Singer

Allin

2020

HRO-ORS

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A critical narrative inquiry to understand the impacts of an overdose prevention site on the lives of site users

et al. 2021

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Background Globally, communities are struggling to gain support for harm reduction strategies being implemented to address the impacts of substance use. A key part of this discussion is understanding and engaging with people who use drugs to help shape community harm reduction strategies. This study focused on how an overdose prevention site has influenced the lives of people who use drugs. Methods A critical narrative method was utilized, centred on photo-narratives. Twenty-seven individuals accessing an overdose prevention site were recruited to participate in preliminary interviews. Sixteen participants subsequently took photographs to describe the impact of the site and participated in a second round of interviews. Through independent coding and several rounds of team analysis, four themes were proposed to constitute a core narrative encompassing the diverse experiences of participants. Results A key message shared by participants was the sense that their lives have improved since accessing the site. The core narrative proposed is presented in a series of four themes or “chapters”: Enduring, Accessing Safety, Connecting and Belonging, and Transforming. The chapters follow a series of transitions, revealing a journey that participants presented through their own eyes: one of moving from utter despair to hope, opportunity, and inclusion. Where at the outset participants were simply trying to survive the challenges of chaotic substance use, through the relationships and services provided at the site they moved towards small or large life transformations. Conclusions This study contributes to an enhanced understanding of how caring relationships with staff at the overdose prevention site impacted site users’ sense of self. We propose that caring relationships are an intervention in and of themselves, and that these relationships contribute to transformation that extends far beyond the public health outcomes of disease reduction. The caring relationships at the site can be a starting point for significant social changes. However, the micro-environment that existed within the site needs to extend beyond its walls for true transformative change to take place. The marginalization and stigmatization that people who use drugs experience outside these sites remains a constant barrier to achieving stability in their lives.

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Fighting Fatality: Insight into British Columbia’s Sanctioning of Overdose Prevention Sites

Cited by 2 publications

References 3 publications

Understanding the Policy Context and Conditions Necessary for the Establishment of Supervised Consumption Sites in Canada: A Comparative Analysis of Alberta and Manitoba

Understanding the Policy Context and Conditions Necessary for the Establishment of Supervised Consumption Sites in Canada: A Comparative Analysis of Alberta and Manitoba

A critical narrative inquiry to understand the impacts of an overdose prevention site on the lives of site users

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