Is there a need for supervised injection services in Windsor-Essex?
That is the question the health unit is asking residents in an online survey.
Officials say they want to better understand the needs in the community and also identify concerns with a proposed supervised program.
“Supervised injection services have the potential to address the issues that we are seeing in Windsor and Essex County, including overdose-related deaths, public injection and discarding of needles, access to treatment and other health and social services, and hepatitis C rates,” says Theresa Marentette, chief executive officer at the WECHU. “Community organizations are looking into these issues, as part of the Windsor-Essex Community Opioid and Substance Use Strategy, and have started having conversation about SIS. This study will help inform these decisions.”
Essex-Windsor EMS report the number of overdoses in the region have increased from 505 in 2016 to nearly 800 in 2017.
Residents 16 years of age and older are asked to respond to the survey at www.wechu.org/sis until Dec. 17.
Windsor’s Overdose Prevention Society has plans to open a privately funded site as early as Nov. 1.
A location has not been finalized but once a site has been chosen, the group says it will launch a door to door education campaign to help neighbours understand why it's in the best interest of the user, and the residents.
