Urgent Action Needed on Harm Reduction and Evidence-based treatment options
For the past few months I, along with other elected officials, businesses, and residents, within Fort Rouge East Fort Garry have seen a growing public health emergency with respect to overdose crises on city streets.
For some-time homelessness advocates have been warning about the dire impact of avoiding this public health emergency.
Urgent action is needed on the overdose crises. Yet, since the federal and provincial elections Mayor Bowman stands alone as the only elected official left working on the joint illicit drug strategy. I'm asking you to call on provincial and federal government and advocate for evidence based practices including:
- Increase access to harm-reduction programs and other evidence-based treatment options;
- Fund trauma supports for people who use drugs and family members;
- Fund grief, trauma supports for frontline workers
- Provincial government to change the classification of Naloxone from a schedule II drug to an unscheduled drug as it is in other provinces.
- Provincial especially to reverse its position on supervised and safe consumption - and pilot some virtual programs in particular in residential settings to increase service options so those safe consumption sites arent just on city streets with growing encampments.