ADVOCATES POINT TO NEED FOR FIXED NEEDLE EXCHANGE

Things in Victoria have gotten really bad, says a street
nurse.

Carolyn Showler, who works out of the Victoria Cool Aid Society's
Swift Street clinic, has seen homeless and drug addicts - who once had
a place to congregate, get help and receive basic daily needs - disappear.

Since AIDS Vancouver Island was forced to shut the doors to its
Cormorant Street facility in May - it was Victoria's sole fixed-site
needle exchange - those needing help have spread around town. This
makes it difficult for people like Showler, who promote harm
reduction, to maintain contacts and ensure people are getting care.

"I think the worst of it would be to come," she warned. "Because there
(aren't so many resources) and there are a lot of things that happen
when people do not have that space to go to."

This Thursday (Sept. 18), FIX Victoria is holding a community dialogue
focusing on the city's health crisis resulting from the loss of harm
reduction services. It's a topic which has no easy solution, but one
which can't be ignored any longer, Showler said.

Victoria's injection drug users are currently being serviced by a
one-year pilot project mobile needle exchange run by AVI and funded by
the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

But it is simply not good enough, Showler said.

"Harm reduction is about a relationship and understanding and
respecting people. You know it's not that you can't do that when you
are mobile, but how easy is it to do that when you are just meeting
new people on the fly?"

The decision to settle for a mobile needle exchange sends the wrong
message to the estimated 1,500 people who call the streets of Victoria
home, Showler said. For many of them, the fixed needle exchange was a
special place where they could clean up, get food and sign up for treatment.

"I think that gives a sense of a lack of caring, and that VIHA has
said 'this is fine' and it isn't fine," she said.

Susan Boyd, associate professor of policy and practices at University
of Victoria, can't understand why the city and VIHA aren't moving
faster to set up a fixed needle exchange, when both parties
acknowledge its benefits.

Having no fixed site is rare among cities of Victoria's size and
wealth of public knowledge on harm reduction gains, added Boyd, who is
among the speakers lined up for the FIX forum.

"Given that environment, I am surprised that this would happen," she
said. "I believe the health authority and AIDS Vancouver Island and
the city should come together and quickly create a stable house for
needle exchange in Victoria."

Closing the Cormorant Street exchange was not by choice, VIHA
spokesperson Shannon Marshall pointed out. Unable to work a solution
with neighbours who complained about the detrimental effects of having
the facility on their block, and being unable to find an appropriate
relocation site, VIHA's hands were tied, she said.

"It is certainly not a lack of commitment on the health authority's
part," she said.

The first three-month evaluation of the mobile needle exchange will be
released within the next two weeks. At the moment, VIHA has no plans
to find a site for a fixed needle exchange.

The community forum starts at 7 p.m. at the First Metropolitan United
Church at 932 Balmoral Rd. For more information, please visit
www.harmreductionvictoria.ca or call 250-884-9821 or 250-477-8546.