‘this program’s really saved us’: as canada offers safer opioids to curb overdoses, will U.S. follow? - september 2022
photos by laura proctor for stat news
words by andrew joseph
The Finks, married just a month earlier, sat down for their appointment, Kim dressed in head-to-toe pink and Chris in all black. He was taciturn, while she joked she couldn’t stop talking long enough to have her blood pressure taken.
Jouvence Tshiyoyo Bukumba, a nurse, asked Kim, 46, about her cardiology appointment and Chris, 54, about his nerve pain. Then came “the SOS questions” — safer opioid supply. How were their doses? Did they feel any cravings or withdrawal?
The Finks are participants in a program at the frontiers of the desperate attempts to reduce never-before-seen levels of overdose deaths. Here at the light-filled Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, clients like the Finks receive prescriptions for government-funded, pharmaceutical-grade opioids they can use to feel the euphoric hit provided by drugs or at least ward off withdrawal, instead of having to rely on street drugs. The program, called safer supply, is part of an expanding movement in Canada to counter the increasingly treacherous drug supply.
“This program’s really saved us,” Kim said.
Harm reduction artwork and medical supplies in an appointment room at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto on August 18, 2022
Angela Robertson, executive director of Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto on August 18, 2022
A needle drop box in the front lobby of the Queen West location of Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto on August 18, 2022
Client support worker Kayley Bomben works at the front desk of Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto on August 18, 2022
Booths for supervised consumption services at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto on August 18, 2022
Nicholas Gouvis, a client at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto on August 18, 2022
Ian McPherson, a client at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto on August 18, 2022. Ian utilizes the clinic’s safer supply services.
Harm reduction supplies for kits sit on a table at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto on August 18, 2022
Clients Kim and Chris Fink meet with registered nurse Jouvence Tshiyoyo Bukumbaat for their regular appointment at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto on August 18, 2022
Clients Kim and Chris Fink meet with registered nurse Jouvence Tshiyoyo Bukumbaat for their regular appointment at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto on August 18, 2022
Artwork is displayed in an appointment room at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto on August 18, 2022