April 17, 2024
Peterborough Currents
In the absence of a supervised consumption site, Peterborough Drug Strategy (PDS) members wanted to find a way to bring potentially life-saving services, like harm reduction supplies and wound care, directly to drug users, according to Williams. PDS partnered with addiction treatment provider Fourcast, Peterborough County-City Paramedics and HIV support agency PARN on the project. Also involved was the Peterborough Police Service, which applied for a grant under the federal government’s Substance Use and Addictions Program to create a mobile team to support people impacted by the toxic drug supply.
Article Highlights:
The team (MSORT) – made up of a paramedic, harm reduction workers and case managers – has now disbanded after funding for the temporary program dried up at the end of March.
“Folks that I encounter are very upset that it is no longer accessible. It’s not an expression of anger that I’m getting, it’s an expression of grief.” - Jason Smith, FourCAST (MSORT)
Starting in 2021, the MSORT team travelled around the city and county, providing people impacted by the toxic drug supply with minor medical care, harm reduction supplies, and help with things like finding housing.
Between April 2022 and September 2023, the team helped approximately 160 people access mental health services and drug treatment and detox programs, and helped approximately 20 people get housing, according to Peterborough County-City Paramedics. Dozens of people a day also received wound care and harm reduction supplies like clean needles and the overdose-reversing drug Naloxone.
New street paramedic program will partly continue MSORT’s legacy. Paramedics will continue to do outreach with people experiencing homelessness; PCCP has created a new “street paramedic” position, focused on wound care, with provincial funding.
The new street paramedic service, called the Community Paramedic Outreach Program, won’t offer everything that MSORT did, according to Fourcast executive director Donna Rogers. The new program lacks harm reduction workers and case managers who can help connect people to services, she said.
But Rogers sees the new program as a continuation of MSORT’s “legacy” of building “better relationships” between paramedics and people who are unhoused or use drugs. “Paramedics were strong partners to us,” said Rogers, who helped oversee the program.
Learn more about MSORT on the "Our Work" Page.
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