FEDS PROVIDE MONEY TO REVIEW NEEDLE WORK

A federal funding agency has given the B.C. Centre for Excellence in
HIV/AIDS a grant for $270,000 to review an educational program for
drug users in Vancouver.

Thomas Kerr is the principal investigator in charge of the research
project designed to evaluate and improve a peer-based outreach
programs for addicts. The first part of the project is a review of an
existing "alley patrol" program run by the Vancouver Area Network of
Drug Users.

VANDU sends out two volunteers, five days a week, to patrol the alleys
of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. They hand out clean needles,
condoms, water, swabs, and information on how to inject safely. Kerr
says VANDU was chosen for evaluation since they are the largest and
most well-known drug user advocacy group and one of the only
organizations patrolling alleys in the city. Kerr says VANDU has a
good reputation but it's still important to evaluate its work.

"Whenever you initiate something new and innovative, you can't just go
on your track record."

For the second phase of the project, Kerr plans on developing a
similar program based on VANDU's work that can be used as a template
by other cities with drug problems.

Kerr expects to run the program within 12 to 18 months from one of the
Downtown Eastside storefront offices operated by the B.C. Centre for
Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

Kerr, 39, has been working as a front-line health care provider for 10
years, mostly dealing with HIV issues. "With the explosive HIV
epidemic with injection drug users in the mid to late '90s, I started
to realize this was a population with a lot of healthcare
challenges."

Kerr says because of the illicit nature of drug use, addicts don't
learn how to inject properly and a lot don't know which side of the
needle should face up. Kerr says the number one cause of
hospitalization among injection users is skin infections and abscesses
from bad shooting habits. He says teaching drug users how to inject
properly will keep them out of hospitals and save taxpayers money.

The Canadian Institutes for Health Research is an agency that funds
research projects aimed at improving health conditions for Canadians.
The CIHR will dole out the money over three years. VANDU is a
nonprofit group started by drug users in 1998. They use the
harm-reduction approach to addiction by trying to make drug use as
safe as possible. They receive funding from the Vancouver Coastal
Health Authority.