NEEDLE EXCHANGE FACES BIG CHALLENGE

Officials Hope Transition to New Home Will Be Smooth

Writing from the William Head Institution, Terry Doucette explains
how Victoria's only fixed site needle exchange saved his life.

"Just before cleaning up I had caught Methicillin-resistant
staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a type of blood poisoning, and didn't
even realize it. I was literally days away from death," Doucette said.

Needle exchange staff drove him to hospital and made sure he received
treatment.

Three years later, the 32 year old is pleading with the community to
coexist with the needle exchange and help it find a new location.

"Please realize the exchange saves lives and recovery from addiction
is a long process. Please don't be so quick to judge, instead let's
figure out a solution," Doucette said.

Last week the centre received a lease termination notice for its
facility on Cormorant Street, which is welcome news to nearby
residents and business that sought a temporary injunction to close
the operation because of loitering and drug use outside the facility.

Katrina Jensen, AIDS Vancouver Island executive director, who
oversees the facility, has no idea where the exchange will end up,
but she does know the transition must be seamless.

Serving some of the city's most vulnerable population, it is
paramount the exchange finds a new home before it's forced out of its
current location in six months.

Interruption to services are simply not acceptable, she said.

"Ideally (the new location) has to be close to downtown but not in a
residential area," Jensen said.

A $125,000 funding increase, announced by the Vancouver Island Health
Authority last week, will not assist in finding a new facility but
rather addresses neighbourhood concerns.

The funding, the first increase since 1993, allows the exchange an
additional staff member, bumping the roster up to three, to monitor
activities in and around the centre.

"We want to try and improve the service in its current location, so
that we are not just moving the problem to another neighbourhood,"
Jensen said. "That will put us in the best position to find a new location."

A report by VIHA also recommends the city implement alternative
needle drop off and pickup sites to help disperse the concentration
of people that use the Cormorant Street needle exchange.

Vancouver has many needle exchanges to deal with the 2.6 million
needles distributed annually. The majority of the facilities are
housed in public health centres, said Viviana Zanocco, a Vancouver
Coastal Health spokeswoman.

"The bigger (needle exchanges) are in areas that are not residential
and the smaller ones are in community health centres that are closer
to residential areas. I am sure people don't even know that there are
needle exchanges in them," said Zanocco.

Erin Gibson, a health promotion and harm reduction employee with the
needle exchange, just wants the media whirlwind and stress of finding
a new home to be resolved.

Gibson's focus, along with her colleagues, remains on the 60 regular
clients she sees every day.

"Right now a lot of the people's needs circle around dry clothing,"
said Gibson.

The team's work consists of many small miracles, from connecting
people to their families, to finding them medical help, which Gibson
shrugs off as routine.

"The people that we work with are amazing," Gibson said. "A lot of
the large majority of the community see only the bad and it is so
easy to dehumanize people then."

Saving lives is the reason the exchange exists, she pointed out.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada statistics one in 10
drug users is HIV-positive and seven in 10 have hepatitis C.

In 1996 the exchange handed out 128,000 needles. In 2006, that number
rose to 740,000.

The relocation could be a blessing.

The Cormorant facility is too small, Gibson said. She would like
space for washrooms, showers and laundry facilities.

In a report in February, AIDS Vancouver Island said it needed
$585,000 -- more than double its current operating budget -- to run
an ideal facility of 3,000 square feet.

VIHA's recent cheque helps, Gibson said.

VIHA will be working closely with AIDS Vancouver Island through its
move, said Jocelyn Stanton, a VIHA spokeswoman.

"The needle exchange is part of harm reduction, it is not going to be
phased out," Stanton said. "It is something that we will work on with
the community."

AIDS Vancouver Island does not know if the organization's other
departments -- volunteer services, the positive wellness program for
people living with HIV and health promotion programing -- will be
allowed to stay in the building on Cormorant Street.