Representatives with the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS unveiled Vancouver’s first indoor safe inhalation site in the Downtown Eastside on Wednesday.
Dr. Julio Montaner, the Centre’s director and physician-in-chief, and Dr. Kate Salters, a senior researcher with the Centre, gave a tour of the soon-to-open rooms at the Hope to Health Research and Innovation Centre.
“We needed to do something more directly focused on the needs of this patient population if we’re going to get ahold of the [drug toxicity] epidemic,” Montaner said.
Dr. Julio Montaner, director for the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, at the unveiling of new safe inhalation rooms. (Submitted)
He pointed to data from recent years showing the number of people dying from overdose after injecting drugs was stabilizing, while the number of people dying from overdose who smoked or inhaled drugs was increasing “in a very rapid fashion.”
The new rooms allow people to safely smoke their drugs individually and come with negative air pressure systems that provide fresh air every 60 seconds — keeping workers and those around them from inhaling smoke.
The rooms also come equipped with emergency air evacuation systems that can clear the room in 30 seconds. That’s helpful if a person suffers an overdose, as staff can clean the air and quickly come in to help.
The rooms feature timers that count down until contaminated air is purged as well as two-way intercoms for staff to communicate with clients. (Submitted)
“It’s not just about preventing an overdose,” Salters said. “It’s about providing harm reduction supplies. It’s about referring to nursing care. We’re right next door to our primary care site, so clients are able to receive care as well if they need it on-site.”
Vancouver Coastal Health already operates several safe consumption sites in Vancouver which include safe inhalation facilities. But according to Salters, those sites are outdoors — often with a tent shielding workers and clients from the elements. These safe inhalation rooms are the first indoor inhalation facilities of their kind in the city.
Funding for the new safe inhalation rooms came from a single private donor, and the renovations required to build them totalled about $4 million. Construction is just finishing, and once final permits are acquired, the new facility should open in the coming weeks.