Saskatoon's only supervised consumption site closing for 11 days to give exhausted staff a break

After a trying time on the front line of the recent overdose spike, Prairie Harm Reduction is temporarily closing its drop-in and supervised consumption site in Saskatoon.

In a social media post on Wednesday the non-profit organization said PHR staff need time to focus on themselves and the trauma of dealing with the overdose crisis head-on over the last few months. The site will reopen Mar. 31.

"It's not an easy decision knowing that there is a lot of fallout from us not being there, but I think people forget that the people on the front lines that are working through all of this, you know, we're human beings, too," DeMong said on a telephone interview with CBC on Thursday.

Saskatoon Fire Department has responded to more than 350 overdoses, including multiple suspicious deaths, since March 1, according to the Ministry of Health. 

Since Jan. 1, the fire department has responded to 696 overdose incidents or suspected opioid poisonings.

The overdoses require four to five doses of naloxone, and sometimes oxygen or paramedics to revive the victim.

PHR staff 'drained and broken'

In the social media post on the closure, Ashley Greyeyes, the drop-in supervisor at PHR, said marginalized people come to the safe consumption site for care, compassion and a chance to survive.

"The past three weeks have been brutal — unprecedented numbers of overdoses, some fatal. Just recently we found ourselves responding to six overdoses at once, a harrowing moment that left us drained and broken," Greyeyes wrote.

Last week, in light of the spike in overdoses in Saskatoon, the Saskatchewan government activated its Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC), which it says is meant to streamline communications between government and organizations.

DeMong says her staff works tirelessly to revive people from overdoses, but they don't have the proper resources to do the work, adding she's s made it clear to PEOC that they need boots on the ground there.

And while she appreciates the PEOC asking what's needed, Demong says it's come too late.

"I don't think they're actively understanding that reaching out at this point doesn't solve anything — that we needed support weeks ago when we started asking," she said.

PHR clients unsure where to go

Shawn and his wife Lucy, who were sitting outside PHR on Thursday afternoon, told CBC they don't know where to go now that PHR is shut down for the time being. The couple only provided their first names.

Shawn said the organization offers a multitude of services that he and his wife relied on.

"Everything from the injection sites to the hanging out to the free food, you know, clothing. They put you in contact with other community resources that you don't know about," Shawn said.

"We're getting kicked out of every business that we hang out in front of, and now cops get called on us like every 10 minutes."

Lucy said she and Shawn were kicked out of their home and PHR was helping connect them with places to live. She said the staff there were relatable.

"They knew where we were coming from," she said.

"I think it's a huge loss for the community … especially with the amount of overdoses that are happening now."

Minister: 'Always open to conversations'

At the legislature on Thursday, Lori Carr, the minister of mental health and addictions, was asked about PHR's request for additional people and resources.

 "We're always open to those conversations," the minister said. "I know that the Saskatchewan Health Authority has been talking with them on how they can assist, and so those conversations will continue and [we'll] see where they go."

Carr acknowledged the number of overdoses in Saskatoon "is a huge problem," which she said is why the SHA and the City of Saskatoon are working together with the PEOC, which is supplying naloxone as needed.

Carr also spoke to the funding of PHR, saying the government is moving in the direction of recovery oriented care.

PHR is partially funded by the government, but not for its supervised consumption site.

"Prairie Harm does provide really good outreach and peer support for those types of individuals, so hopefully they will be able to get up and running as soon as possible," Carr said.