SCS facilities to close confirm plans to apply for HART centers as deadline approaches

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website dedicated exclusively to covering provincial politics in Queen’s Park.

At least some of the supervised consumption sites (SCS) to be closed at the direction of the provincial government have confirmed they will apply to become Homeless and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) centres.

On Aug. 20, Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced the province would close 10 substance abuse and treatment services (CTS) sites within 200 meters of schools or daycare centers and ban future ones. The sites would have to close their doors by March 31, 2025 or become a Homeless and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) facility.

These centers, the government said, would connect people with services such as primary care or mental health treatment and add 375 “highly supportive housing units” along with “addiction treatment and recovery beds”.

HART hub applications are due Friday.

The decision to close existing CTS sites has been controversial, with advocates and health groups warning it will lead to preventable deaths. The sites have workers who can reverse overdoses and connect people with mental health and treatment options.

The health minister has denied that the closures will lead to more deaths, previously saying “people will not die”.

The Trillium contacted the next 10 sites to be closed, all of which except the Kensington Market site receive provincial funding, to ask if they would apply for funding for a HART centre.

• Guelph Community Health Center – 176 Wyndham Street North, Guelph
• Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Center – 70 James Street South, Hamilton
• NorWest Community Health Center – 525 Simpson Street, Thunder Bay
• Parkdale Queen West Community Health Center (Bathurst) – 168 Bathurst Street, Toronto
• Regent Park Community Health Center – 465 Dundas Street East, Toronto
• Waterloo Region Public Health and Emergency Services: 150 Duke Street West, Kitchener
• Somerset West Community Health Center – 55 Eccles Street, Ottawa
• South Riverdale Community Health Center (Queen) – 955 Queen Street East, Toronto
• Toronto Public Health (The Works) – 277 Victoria Street, Toronto
• Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site, The Neighborhood Group – 260 Augusta Avenue, Toronto

South Riverdale Community Health Center said in an Oct. 11 email to The Trillium which planned to apply, in collaboration with 11 other organizations, for the funding of the HART center. Several of the other groups provide housing and the collaboration is being coordinated through East Toronto Health Partners, an Ontario health team.

The center said it decided to partner with other groups because it supports team-based care.

“It will increase access to programs and services, such as social connectedness, access to health care (primary care, midwifery, low barrier treatment for mental health and substance use), harm reduction , which minimizes the spread of blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis C, and the social support and referrals that our most vulnerable community members need every day, and will improve access to housing/supportive housing,” South Riverdale Community Health Center said in a statement.

But the center added that it would have preferred a model that included a CTS.

“The fact is that it would be very beneficial for the HART Hub’s enhanced range of services, including mental health and substance use treatment, to work with the CTS, in order to reach the whole population and provide services additional to CTS users who are supported by dedicated CTS staff to improve their health/life,” the center stated.

“Unfortunately, the HART Hub model does not provide CTS services, which is an essential entry point to health programs and services and an integral component of the continuum of care for people who use drugs. The delivery of care in a CTS is specifically designed to keep people alive in the context of the ongoing toxic drug crisis/overdose crisis, and we are concerned that our current clients are not getting enough access,” the center stated.

“These life-saving services are needed now more than ever. The people we serve often have very complex health care needs that face extreme stigma. We connect them with on-site comprehensive comprehensive care.”

The center said closing multiple Toronto sites would “lead to unnecessary overdoses” and prevent vulnerable people from receiving needed health care.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, said Toronto Public Health (TPH) would stop supervised consumption services at its CTS site, The Works, at the end of March, but that the city, TPH and others social and health services. the organizations would collaborate to submit a HART hub request.

Waterloo Region also plans to do the same.

“We are working with our local network of community partners and health care providers to develop a community-based application to bring a HART center to Waterloo Region. We know our community needs better access to primary care , mental health and addiction care, housing and social supports associated with the model,” the region said in a statement.

On Thursday, the NDP’s Kristyn Wong-Tam joined health professionals and other professionals in Queen’s Park to call on the province to reconsider its plan to close CTS sites.

Wong-Tam said she would like to see sites remain open with extended service hours, more treatment beds, funding for sites that have already closed due to lack of funding and a guarantee of “access to treatment and recovery services , including detoxification and treatment beds within 24 hours of application.”

Matthew Kellway, director of policy for the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, said the “harm reduction” services offered by CTS sites are something “deeply embedded in the practice of nursing.”

“To propose harm reduction as opposed to treatment as this government does, is deeply dishonest or ignorant,” Kellway said. “It’s all part of the same complicated continuum of care for people with substance use disorder.”

Dr. Samantha Green, a family doctor in Toronto who also has a son who attends a daycare near one of the CTS sites that will close, said she opposes the government’s “reckless decision” to close the sites .

“And it’s so embarrassing that this is being done in my name,” she said.

The government stood by the CTS closures and said it has taken steps to expand treatment beds and invested $20 million for mobile crisis response teams.

“Ontario’s communities, parents and families have made it clear that the presence of drug sites near schools and daycare centers is creating serious safety concerns. We agree. That’s why our government is taking steps to keep communities safe, while supporting the recovery of those struggling with opioid addiction,” said Hannah Jensen, spokeswoman for the Minister of Health.

“We recognize that Ontarians deserve more than a health care system focused on providing people struggling with addiction with tools to use illegal drugs, and our government is taking the next step to create a care system that prioritize community safety, treatment and recovery by investing $387 million to create HART Hubs,” he added.