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MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
North End Women\u2019s Centre Executive director Cynthia Drebot <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Executive director Cynthia Drebot said staff responded to 11 overdoses over the stretch in late April, administering 31 doses of naloxone.<\/p>\n
Another 49 people required monitoring as they drifted in and out of consciousness at the drop-in or on the centre\u2019s Selkirk Avenue property. During the same period, nearly 800 people came through the doors seeking support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just couldn\u2019t sustain it,\u201d Drebot said Wednesday, recalling how staff were even called to a nearby Robins Donuts to help with an overdose inside the shop.<\/p>\n
The strain has extended beyond the drop-in. At the organization\u2019s transitional housing site, one overdose left an employee filing a workers compensation claim for post-traumatic stress.<\/p>\n
Back at the mobile overdose prevention site, the sense of relief on the outreach worker\u2019s face was palpable as the woman he had been monitoring got back to her feet.<\/p>\n
He said outreach workers are having to keep people alive, recalling a recent overdose that required eight doses of naloxone to reverse.<\/p>\n
\u201c(They) could have been gone a couple of weeks ago,\u201d he said of the person who overdosed. \u201cIt\u2019s the relationships. Even though these people are unhoused, or marginalized by their addiction or whatever it is, they\u2019re still humans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though these people are unhoused, or marginalized by their addiction or whatever it is, they\u2019re still humans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drugs like \u201cdown,\u201d a mixture of opioids, including fentanyl, carfentanil, and often heroin, have been \u201cstepped on,\u201d or laced, with medetomidine, a veterinary tranquillizer, linked to rising overdose deaths due to its sedative effects and impact on heart rate and breathing.<\/p>\n
Naloxone can help reverse the opioid effects, but medetomidine is not an opioid, leading to the need for emergency intervention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the tricky part,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what we have to treat. And we can carry all of the naloxone we want, but it\u2019s not (always) going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winnipeg\u2019s escalating drug toxicity crisis is increasingly falling on front-line workers \u2014 many of whom, advocates say, \u201cnever signed up for the work they\u2019re having to do right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Jonny Mexico said calls to declare a public health emergency and open a supervised drug consumption site would help, but argues broader policy reform is needed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Jonny Mexico, the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network Winnipeg coordinator, said drop-in staff, shelter workers and outreach teams are effectively acting as paramedics on the street.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re supporting folks who are in drug overdose, experiencing overdose crises, monitoring for danger,\u201d Mexico said Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely wild. There are a lot of things that need to change, because what\u2019s happening right now is unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n Mexico warned that without change, workers risk developing post-traumatic stress disorder and leaving the field altogether.<\/p>\n Drebot, who has been with the centre for more than 12 years, said she\u2019s already seeing the strain.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore (the COVID-19 pandemic), we had about 50 to 75 people coming through the door each day,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, we\u2019re upwards of 120 a day. And then the complexity of need is so much higher than it\u2019s ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n Mexico believes the crisis should be met with the same urgency and scale as the response to COVID-19, and can\u2019t be solved by a magic bullet. They point to the pandemic as a model \u2014 not just for public health measures, but for the \u201call-hands-on-deck\u201d effort to develop treatments and reduce stigma so people felt safe seeking help.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere having COVID wasn\u2019t looked at as leading a shitty lifestyle and where we weren\u2019t throwing people that had COVID in jail,\u201d he said, referring to the stigmas surrounding drug users and the province\u2019s 72-hour detox facility.<\/p>\n Mexico said calls to declare a public health emergency and open a supervised drug consumption site would help, but argues broader policy reform is needed.<\/p>\n \u201cA safe consumption site is not going to be the only answer, but it\u2019s something that would certainly help,\u201d they said. \u201cHousing is a big thing. Poverty is a massive thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Mexico spoke to the strain on drop-in staff trying to keep people alive, echoing Main Street Project executive director Jamil Mahmood\u2019s comment that 30 deaths a month would trigger a public health emergency anywhere else.<\/p>\n Main Street Project is one of several city outreach organizations calling on provincial and federal authorities to step in.<\/p>\n Last week, Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan wrote the federal health minister, pleading to have the city\u2019s drug crisis treated as a national emergency after having claimed nearly a dozen lives in recent weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cThis comes with a profound sense of urgency regarding the escalating loss of life in our community,\u201d the letter said. \u201cEach death is a devastating and preventable tragedy that demands immediate and decisive action.\u201d<\/p>\n Resource Assistance for Youth executive director Kate Sjoberg launched a petition last Friday, urging the federal government to boost addiction funding, restore cuts, expand Indigenous-led harm reduction and strengthen front-line supports.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of the point we\u2019ve been making is there\u2019s a choice being made on who\u2019s valued,\u201d Sjoberg said. \u201cUltimately, what we\u2019re trying to do is to flow resources to the places that need them both, whether it\u2019s through a public health emergency or otherwise. But would we call for a public health emergency if the resources were being provided for?\u201d<\/p>\n The petition has reached the 500-signature threshold required for Gazan to bring it to the floor of the House of Commons.<\/p>\n A Health Canada spokesperson acknowledged the \u201cunrelenting and tragic toxic illegal drug and overdose crisis\u201d in an email and said it\u2019s responding to the crisis with a \u201cwhole-of-government approach.\u201d<\/p>\n The province has said it is monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n Declaring a public health emergency, usually reserved for communicable diseases such as COVID, would have to be done by the province\u2019s chief public health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin.<\/p>\n The province declined to make Roussin available for an interview this week. At a Thursday news conference declaring an HIV public health emergency, he said declaring a similar emergency for drug toxicity would not advance work already underway, adding, \u201cit is not where we\u2019re likely to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, after several days spent developing a safety plan, the North End Women\u2019s Centre is reopening its drop-in program on Wednesdays with support from the Red Response Team, an Indigenous-led, survivor-centred outreach team that will monitor for overdoses both onsite and in the surrounding community through the end of August.<\/p>\n Drebot said the centre has also introduced additional staff training days, dedicated debriefing time and longer breaks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to try it, and if it changes, then we\u2019ll have to pull back again,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to let my drop-in team burn out and quit.\u201d<\/p>\n scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Scott Billeck Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade\u2019s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.\u00a0 Read more about Scott<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS FILES
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