AHS taking over Red Deer overdose prevention site at end of May

The non-profit organization that operates the overdose prevention site in Red Deer, Alta., is handing over operations to Alberta Health Services on May 31.

Turning Point has operated the overdose prevention site since 2018, but the provincial government announced at the beginning of February that AHS was taking over and switching to mobile operations within three to six months. 

AHS is now confirming the transition will take place at the end of May. 

The provincial health authority has issued job postings seeking full and part-time registered nurses, client care assistants and primary care paramedics to work at the facility. The positions have a start date of May 8. 

AHS wants to ensure the transition occurs "as seamlessly as possible," spokesperson Kerry Williamson said in a statement.

"Once the transition occurs, AHS will continue to provide services at the current location at this time, with no change in hours of operation nor access for clients," Williamson wrote. 

"AHS will continue to ensure that clients receive the care and support they need and we will be making some enhancements to the current site for the safety of not only clients and staff, but for neighbours as well."

The ministry of mental health and addiction is funding Turning Point until the end of June to help with the transition. 

Current staff at the overdose prevention site will have to apply for the jobs posted on the AHS site.

Reed Charbonneau, interim executive director of Turning Point, said the next priority is supporting the 51 staff members who work at the overdose prevention site. The non-profit also wants to mitigate concerns that there could be more opioid poisonings away from the site. 

"A changeover of this sort is an involved process and we are collaborating closely with AHS to promote a seamless transition, which will maintain the quality and scope of the care and supports we provide," Charbonneau said in a written statement. 

"This collaboration has been positive and fruitful, and we are cautiously hopeful that the same level of service will be delivered under the new provider."

24-hour access

The Red Deer overdose prevention site was established by the previous NDP government to help prevent deaths from drug poisoning.

The facility, open 24 hours a day, is located in an ATCO trailer in the parking lot of the Safe Harbour Society near the city's downtown.

The site allows people with addictions to use substances without judgment and have someone provide medical help if they overdose or inject a poisoned batch of drugs.

The idea is to keep people alive until they are ready to seek help for their addiction. 

But this type of harm reduction is controversial. Businesses in the area have complained about vandalism and needles near the site. The United Conservative Party government has opted to put resources toward increasing access to recovery centres rather than on harm reduction strategies.

Lori Sigurdson, the NDP critic for mental health and addiction, said taking operations away from Turning Point will only put more strain on the health-care system.

"If AHS has nursing staff available, they should be immediately employed in the Red Deer Regional Hospital or any of the many rural hospitals in central Alberta which are partially closed due to severe staffing shortages caused by the UCP," Sigurdson said in a written statement.

The initial announcement about the AHS transition came about awkwardly. 

In early February, staff at Turning Point overheard Red Deer city councillor Kraymer Barnstable discussing the move at a coffee shop with someone from the provincial government.

The news caught the non-profit off-guard. The government issued a news release two days later confirming what was happening. Barnstable apologized for the gaffe on his Facebook page several days later. 

When the transition was announced, Mental Health and Addiction Minister Nicholas Milliken said the change in Red Deer is modelled on how the government switched to AHS-operated mobile operations in Lethbridge after closing a supervised consumption site there in 2020.

Milliken said the change was a success but a recent academic study based on interviews with drug users in Lethbridge suggested otherwise.

Three criminology professors — Katharina Maier from the University of Winnipeg, Carolyn Greene from Athabasca University and Marta-Marika Urbanik from the University of Alberta — found that the closure created harm. 

Operations moved out of the downtown core, making more difficult and dangerous for users to access supervised consumption services, the study said.