Pubdate: Thu, 20 Apr 2000
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2000 David Syme & Co Ltd
Contact:  250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia
Website: http://www.theage.com.au/
Author: Chloe Saltau, Social Policy Reporter

HIT BY THE SOFT WALLS, COMFY CHAIRS, HOT SHOWERS

The walls have no hard edges so you won't bump into them and get hurt. The 
chairs are designed so you can't fall out of them. Inside the supervised 
injecting room, the clean syringe is ready for you in a stainless steel 
bowl. Outside, in the waiting room, you can have a coffee and eat something 
healthy.

Within a year several of these facilities will open around Melbourne. All 
that is needed is the support of five local councils.

The rooms will be unobtrusive places, according the Victorian Government 
and the Drug Policy Expert Committee chaired by David Penington. They will 
be a quiet spot for heroin users to inject but they will also be health 
centres.

The report, delivered yesterday by Dr Penington's committee, says an 
injecting room should not be separated from the street drug trade by a main 
road. A user should not have far to go to inject heroin once they have paid 
for it.

But the room should not be on a major shopping strip or in a predominantly 
residential area. It cannot be near schools, kindergartens, or other 
"sensitive public facilities" either. Local authorities will determine the 
opening hours, but Dr Penington said overseas experience suggested they 
should be open between about 10am and 10pm.

The report said the injecting centres must have a reception area, a waiting 
area, a recovery area. There will be a separate room for injecting and a 
room where users can consult a doctor.

They will be for adults only. Health Minister John Thwaites said he wanted 
to tread carefully during the 18-month trial. People under 18 who go to a 
room will be referred to a youth outreach program, such as the statewide 
Youth Substance Abuse Service.

The rooms will be managed by the Department of Human Services. Dr Penington 
envisages they will be staffed by people with expertise in dealing with 
drug-affected youth, whether they be social workers, ambulance officers, or 
nurses, appointed by the operators in consultation with the department.

The managing director of Wesley Mission Melbourne, Judy Leitch, said the 
$400,000 facility on the church grounds in Lonsdale Street doubles as a 
public health service. The centre remains closed due to fierce opposition 
from resident groups and concern from Melbourne City Council.

Upstairs is an area which, if Wesley is chosen to run a room in the city, 
will be used to link drug users with infectious disease control, Aboriginal 
health, and legal aid services. "These are people that do not come into 
contact with mainstream health services," Ms Leitch said.

As in Europe, injecting facilities will have washing machines, so users can 
put a load of clothes through while they wait, and showers, checked 
periodically to determine whether a person is slumping into overdose.

Should someone overdose, staff will revive them using conventional 
resuscitation methods - Dr Penington said European rooms rarely stocked 
oxygen let alone Narcan - but an ambulance would be called if necessary.

Ms Leitch said Dr Penington's recommendations about the position and 
operation of injecting rooms were consistent with the research Wesley had 
conducted over the past 12 months. Wesley was prepared to work with the 
government and the council regardless of whether the mission was chosen to 
operate the CBD facility.

About 70per cent of the city community supported such a facility and the 
Wesley congregation was generally supportive. Overseas evidence suggested 
others would become convinced after they saw that it was saving lives and 
reducing the public nuisance on the streets, Ms Leitch said.
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