SASKATOON — Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand expressed sadness when he announced Friday that they have one isolated case where an individual overdosed while using illegal substances at the recently-opened Wellness Centre.
The centre opened Wednesday night and is at its full capacity of 50 people, in the two nights that it has been in operation. There are currently 36 individuals staying on Friday, but they come and go, and the number increases again at nighttime where temperatures are at the coldest.
Arcand said that the individual's overdose was an unfortunate incident that happened at 10 a.m. on Thursday, but they still look at it on a positive light as the individual is now recovering.
“The individual was given Narcan, an ambulance was called, and the individual was taken to the hospital. He was released and was back in the shelter after a couple of hours,” said Arcand.“The good thing about this is we saved somebody’s life yesterday, inside our shelter that could have overdosed outside in the freezing cold. We still look at this in a positive situation, but we also look at it as a crisis because addiction is a crisis. We’re still ironing out the bumps on the road here, while we’re doing this.”
Narcan, a brand name for naloxone, is a medication used to counter decreased breathing and other effects related to opioid overdose. Naloxone can also be mixed with an opioid to lessen the impact of the risks of misusing the highly addictive drug.
The Centre has a room filled with bins, where the relatives — the term used for individuals staying at the shelter — have been following rules and regulations, aside from the overdose incident. There’s also a separate room where one can do smudge.
“Some are not happy that they have got to put all their belongings inside of the bins, but that's the rules for the safety of everyone," said Arcand.
“We all know the weather is cold out there but at the same point, we wanted to be accountable and transparent to the public. Let them know exactly what's going on. We’re out on the street picking up, like if they left coffee cups out there, or other things. We’re trying to keep our street as clean as possible and making sure we’re keeping the community safe. So, we just really appreciate the support. What we're doing here is to help as many people as we can in a situation that's pretty muted in our city.”
Arcand said they will be offering services like addiction and mental health counselling, which hopefully could start working by next week.
“We’re trying to get through the rough days here, but I know the community is kind of worried on what’s going on and I respect that. We also want to make sure that our staff are working in a unified fashion and building that trust,” said Arcand.
“So, they [counsellors] are on standby to come in. Hopefully, next week we can start bringing in those types of services [addiction and mental health counselling] for whoever relative wants it. We’re not forcing anything on anybody, but there are services that we can provide them of potentially getting them back on their feet, back in a better situation of living on their own.”
He added that counsellors will be working in shifts.
“It could be one person six hours a day, because we see the highest need is in the evening. People are coming in, so during the day they come and go, which is fine. We just had an elderly man said that I’m going for a walk for a couple of hours. We’re not judging you and we’re not forcing you to stay here, but if you’re here you can avail of the services if they want that. If that service comes, they will get it eventually.”
Arcand said they are not going to turn away intoxicated individuals as long as there’s still room, as they are strictly following the 50-person capacity.
“What we said was no consumption. So, you can come in even if you're coming in intoxicated. We're going to take you, you're coming in. If you have drugs, we're going to take. You got to leave all your stuff here [bins]. You can't take anything into your room and then go to other rooms.”
“We’re showing people here that they've got to trust us, in regard to the safety of people. We’re making sure that they don't bring drugs in to affect other people. Also, we're really doing our best, but we want to be transparent. We talked about accountability and transparency; this is why we're saying this because we're not going to hide from anybody. We're going to tell the truth of what's going on and how we can improve.”
