Today’s announcement by the Ontario government to close 10 Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) sites, seven of which are embedded within Community Health Centres across Ontario, is hugely disappointing. This decision means vitally needed services and programs will disappear at a time when they’re needed most. It means that people will disappear in far greater numbers in months and years ahead, from fatal and avoidable poisonings. Moms, sons, daughters, dads, uncles, cousins, friends, colleagues will disappear from people’s lives forever with this sudden policy change. This decision, however, will not lead Ontario to the disappearance of the drug poisoning crisis, or to ending the mental health crises seen among youth, seniors and other demographics.
Simply put, removing proven low-barrier and harm reducing services and programs will lead to more people dying, more public drug use, and higher and more complex burdens for emergency rooms, for our emergency medical services personnel, for police and other law enforcement, for hospitals, for neighbourhoods – all of which are already under more stress than they can sustainably or healthily withstand.
If community health organizations cannot meet people who are struggling where they’re at, they will not have the capacity to offer help – this decision puts the very solutions people need, out of reach. We need to be increasing, not decreasing access. Without more help, we will see communities degraded further, with today’s mental illnesses and untreated traumas become tomorrow’s desperate behaviour and emergencies.
Reinforcing criminalization reinforces stigmatization, discrimination and health inequities. Removing clean needle exchange programs, considered a gold standard worldwide for preventing the spread of serious (and costly) diseases, will increase their spread, make public health worse, and degrade fragile trust in community health providers, while costing taxpayers in Ontario more money, without positive results.
Harm reduction is a part of the continuum for helping to keep communities safe. Blaming these evidence-based approaches to care for the current crisis is outright wrong, and risks harming communities who desperately need support now and into the future.
Rising rates of homelessness and precariously housed people, a toxic drug supply, and an epidemic of mental health, addictions and unaddressed trauma are tearing at the fabric of community life across Ontario. We firmly agree with the Government of Ontario that more needs to be done. But the way forward is not a return to stigmatization, to criminalizing illnesses and addiction, or withdraw vital supports that help to save lives.
We call on the Ontario government to immediately reconsider this decision, and for the Ministry of Health to work with CTS site organizations, clinician researchers, communities and community health providers, and mental health and addictions partners to work and addictions sector to create the newly proposed Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs that include the full continuum of addictions care, including harm reduction services. Like our partners, we believe there is an opportunity to build something better, which offers the full spectrum of services people need, from harm reduction to withdrawal management, treatment and counselling.
We’re ready to help address this crisis with the right resources – both the funding levels to address the crisis, but also with proven, clinical tools that we know from years of experience are effective to help save lives.