NEEDLE EXCHANGE MAY NOT GO AHEAD NEAR KIDS' DAYCARE

Health outreach plans that include a downtown needle exchange may change
after officials met Monday with concerned parents and the mayor.

"I can't say whether that (the needle-exchange) will be part of the
project," said Colleen Maloney, public health nurse. "It is not an
essential component of the project.

"We have slowed the process down. We have stepped back and we are looking
at it in a different way."

About 12 people - most of them parents of children at the Penticton Early
Childhood Centre at 521 Martin St. - attended a meeting with health
officials, held to address concerns over a proposal that called for a
public health nurse to work out of the nearby Penticton Outreach Centre two
hours a week, on a three-month trial basis.

"I don't know what form it is going to take, but the bottom line is we are
going to continue working towards a needs assessment for a street nurse in
Penticton," said Maloney. "That was the primary purpose of what we wanted
to do with the project."

The exchange of used needles for clean ones was a part of the proposal, but
while it is needed downtown, it is not a crucial part of plans, Maloney
said. Health officials will now explore their options in cooperation with
all community partners, she said.

Nobody says there isn't a need for the kind of services being proposed,
said Heather McDonald at the meeting. But the location is "troubling"
because it risks exposing children attending the daycare to inappropriate
behaviour and discarded needles, she said.

"Have you looked at another location? Why next to a daycare?" she asked.

Parent Marlene Jones agreed.

"This gives me the chills," she said.

Fiona Wilkie, a daycare employee, said the business would lose clients if
the needle exchange goes ahead.

"This is a business," she said. "We have to attract customers."

She also wondered why the daycare centre was not initially consulted.
"There has been zero communication," she said.

That was a mistake, said Maloney, who apologized.

"At the time, we really didn't see that there would be any impact on the
neighbourhood," she said. "As far as I am concerned, I feel what we are
trying to do would improve the neighbourhood, would provide a healthier
neighbourhood. But I can certainly appreciate that the daycare, as a
business, has some reservations around the idea, because of public
perception mainly."

Mayor David Perry, who listened for most of the hour-long meeting, was
"shocked" to hear a needle exchange might have gone into the Outreach
Centre without a more formal vetting process.

But he appreciated Maloney's expression of regret about the lack of
communication, adding he would arrange more discussion through the city's
social development advisory committee scheduled to meet Dec. 11.

"We need to decide on a way to go ahead," he said, adding that Penticton
needs a street nurse.