“Winning the AccolAIDS Awards is validation of the need for supervised injection initiatives within the HIV/AIDS community,” says Patti Zettel, a Registered Nurse with the Dr. Peter Centre Day Health Program.

Dr. Peter Centre’s philosophy of “meeting people where they are at” led us to pioneer supervised injection services. The World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed harm reduction strategies in the late 1990s as a pragmatic health care response to the surge of HIV infection amongst injection drug users. Dr. Peter Centre responded with a needle exchange program, free condoms and safe storage of money to decrease the triggers associated with having cash.

Knowing that 70% of Dr. Peter Centre participants have either a history of substance abuse or were struggling with addiction, it became clear we had to respond even more directly to the health impact of injection drug use. Our nurses were seeing increasing rates of admission to acute care hospitals by injection drug users for overdose, abscesses, and other health crises associated with injection drug use. We knew that by providing a supervised space for injection of street drugs, we could decrease these health crises. Equally important, we could build honest, trust-based, therapeutic relationships with a group of individuals who are marginalized by society. The supervised injection service provided another one part of a continuum of harm reduction strategies aimed at reducing the harm associated with drug use and other risky behaviors, to the individual and to the community, without necessarily requiring a decrease in the drug use itself.

Since beginning to offer supervised injection in Spring 2002, the Centre has supervised approximately 1,000 injections. The Centre’s innovative model demonstrates the effectiveness of including supervised injection in a clinical setting that also offers art, recreation, and music therapy; counseling; nutritious meals; and other basic life amenities. The model also confirms that the service can be effectively integrated into a setting serving diverse people, including non-injection drug users. The AccolAIDS Award has recognized the Centre’s willingness to embrace a once controversial harm reduction initiative.