The Manitoba government is providing funding to create Canada’s first Indigenous-led supervised consumption site in Winnipeg.
The province, working in partnership with the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre of Winnipeg, is providing $727,000. A news conference to announce the site was held Friday morning.
Supervised consumption sites usually include a reception area, consumption spaces and post-consumption common areas, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said in a news release. Staff members are trained to respond to accidental overdoses and other emergencies and can refer to and support patrons in accessing health and social services.
“This space is long overdue. Our Indigenous and non-Indigenous relatives continue to die from overdoses and the toxic drug supply, and we must do more,” Della Herrera, the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre of Winnipeg’s executive director and a member of the Manitoba government’s Matriarch Circle, said in a news release.
“This solution is Indigenous-led and guided by people with lived and living experience, wherever they are on their journey.”
The centre will lead the service design and delivery of the site, and a new co-ordinator with Shared Health will “ensure service integration with the broader provincial mental health and addiction system,” the news release said.
Dr. Erin Knight, medical lead of Rapid Access to Addiction Medicine with Shared Health, said “This space, as one part of a larger harm-reduction strategy, will complement and integrate with treatment services to better support people who use drugs and contribute to a safer community for us all.”
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