Pubdate: Tue, 21 Oct 2008 Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 Prince George Citizen Contact: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350 Author: Linda Keefe Note: Linda Keefe is co-ordinator Downtown Health Centre and Needle Exchange for Northern Health. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange) NEEDLE EXCHANGE OFFERS MANY SERVICES I am a Public health nurse at the Downtown Health Centre and Needle Exchange. I'd like to explain what I see, what I do and why I do it. I work with a committed and skilled group of outreach workers and nurses who provide a broad range of services to promote health and reduce harm. These include traditional public health nursing services and harm reduction activities offered in a non-traditional environment. The Downtown Health Centre is so much more than a needle exchange - offering HIV and hepatitis testing and follow-up, and STI (STD) testing and treatment, routine vaccinations, reproductive health services (PAP and pregnancy tests, emergency contraceptives), wound care, routine health promotion, health prevention and risk-reduction counseling. We can and do provide these services to everyone and anyone who comes through our doors. While the downtown clinic is designed to help people with addictions, we also provide health services to any others requesting care. Handing out crack pipes and clean needles for injection drug users is only a part of our work to reduce the harm caused by drug addiction - harm not only to users themselves, but to the broader community through the potential spread of disease, and the enormous cost of treating the many dire health consequences that those caught in the cycle of addiction can suffer. The clients we see are often people who would not otherwise access health support and services until they were already very sick. But while our clients are accessing harm-reduction supplies, we have the opportunity to encourage them to take advantage of other nursing services, including education, referral to addictions services, testing and follow-up for communicable diseases. (It's estimated that 30 per cent of HIV positive people don't know that they're positive and aren't taking precautions to avoid infecting other people.) No perfect solutions or quick fixes have been found for the complex problems of addictions. It is critical that we use the tools that are available to us and continue caring for those members of our community who are suffering. These people aren't "others"; they are our children, our sisters, our brothers, our friends and neighbours. Harm-reduction services are a humane, reasonable and cost efficient way to provide services to this client group. In response to suggestions that harm-reduction services support or encourage drug use, I can assure you that this is not the case. The majority of our new clients are people who have been involved in serious drug use for more than a year. We actively discourage drug use, while promoting the reduction of risk. Our goal is to assist the person to stay as healthy as they can be. We cannot force them to stop their drug use, but we can certainly encourage them to live a healthier life, and we do just that every day. If our client was your loved one, wouldn't you prefer they have access to safer supplies and health-care professionals who work to ensure that if they were ready to start the process of recovery, they weren't infected with a life-altering disease? Addictions problems and solutions are extremely complex and I don't mean to suggest that we have the answers. We are health-care providers and one thing that I can absolutely guarantee is that if one of your friends or family members comes through our service, they will be treated with competence, caring, dignity and respect. We will do everything that we can, to see that they are as healthy as possible, given the reality of their individual situations. - --- Linda Keefe is co-ordinator Downtown Health Centre and Needle Exchange for Northern Health. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom