Author: Dr. Graydon Simmons

As a physician working at Ottawa Inner City Health (OICH), I am commonly asked about our Managed Alcohol Program (MAP) by other healthcare professionals. In general, MAPs provide prescribed doses of alcohol in a controlled setting with healthcare and social supports to reduce alcohol-related harms for people living with severe, treatment resistant alcohol use disorders.  

Because of MAPs’ longstanding history in Canada since the 1990s, their established evidence for harm reduction in peer-reviewed medical literature and past national media attention, the majority of the time the healthcare professionals speaking with me have already heard about the basics of a MAP. As a result, the questions I’m asked are related to the everyday elements of care happen at MAP. Nurses, social workers, doctors and more want to know: if we tried to set up a MAP in our community, what does it look like? How do you actually deliver the care? Who are the people working at the site each day?  

In fielding these questions, we realized that other healthcare professionals could benefit from some of the more practical descriptions of how we deliver care at our MAP. While there are guidelines for MAPs in Canada, it can be harder to find descriptions about the everyday aspects of care at each of the known MAP sites currently running.  At OICH, we currently have two MAP locations in Ottawa in partnership with the Shepherds of Good Hope. Our MAP care has evolved significantly since OICH and the Shepherds of Good Hope began delivering the program in 2001, with countless lessons learned along the way by nurses, client care workers, housing & shelter workers and doctors.  

As a result, we set out to describe answers to some of the questions we commonly receive in a commentary published in the Harm Reduction Journal. Our hope at OICH is to continue to spread the experience and stories we have gained over the years so that we can improve our MAP care and its outcomes for our clients. And in recognition of OICH’s 25 year history of care in 2026 (including MAP), we hope to continue to spread some of our knowledge too! 

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The post Baisse des surdoses à Ottawa : personne ne sait vraiment pourquoi (en anglais) first appeared on Ottawa Inner City Health Inc..

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The post Crise des opioïdes et épidémie « cachée » de lésions cérébrales (en anglais) first appeared on Ottawa Inner City Health Inc..

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The post Wendy Muckle, cofondatrice d’Ottawa Inner City Health, nommée à l’Ordre du Canada (en anglais) first appeared on Ottawa Inner City Health Inc..

The post Wendy Muckle, cofondatrice d’Ottawa Inner City Health, nommée à l’Ordre du Canada (en anglais) appeared first on Ottawa Inner City Health Inc..

The Life Process Program is a groundbreaking, non-disease-based model designed to address substance use and substance use disorder. Originally offered directly to individuals seeking support, LPP has now evolved to include a Coach Training Program. This initiative empowers peers to become recovery coaches, equipping them to support individuals in their own communities. By fostering local, peer-led solutions, we’re creating new pathways to reach marginalized populations in ways that truly meet them where they are.

Last week, we had the pleasure of welcoming Zach Rhoads and Daithi Conlon from LPP to Ottawa. During their visit, Case Manager Tabitha Morris led them on a tour of the city, showcasing the diverse programs and services Ottawa offers to support harm reduction and recovery. The visit culminated in a proud moment as Zach presented Certificates of Completion to our first cohort of trainees in the Coach Training Program.

“We are honored to collaborate with Ottawa Inner City Health,” shared Zach Rhoads, LPP Coach. “Their dedication and innovative harm reduction services are truly inspiring. Partnering with peers who empower their communities allows us to add future-focused, solution-driven support to enhance substance use health. It’s exciting to see the impact unfolding.”

Now that the training is complete, our newly certified peer coaches are diving into their roles. They have begun enrolling clients into the program and are facilitating both one-on-one sessions and group meetings informed by LPP principles.

This marks the start of an exciting new chapter—one where peer-led recovery becomes a transformative force in our community. Congratulations again to our graduates; your work is paving the way for a brighter, more inclusive future!

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In Ottawa, the people who use drugs who were engaged in the efforts to protect the health of their community and to advocate for the services they and their community desperately needed to survive the toxic drug crisis are mostly dead now. Those that are not, are overwhelmed with survivor’s guilt, demoralized that not only were their efforts not enough to save their friends but that the services they advocated for are being blamed for causing the problems they set out mitigate.

In the public discourse about community safety, the voice of people who use drugs has been absent. This is striking given that people who use drugs a) are part of the community and b) are far more likely to be victimized than any other stakeholder in the conversation and c) necessary for any sustainable solution to public safety issues.

We worked with people who use drugs to develop and implement a survey around the safety needs of people who use drugs. 

https://lnkd.in/eS3qgiDj

Next we held focus groups to ask them what specific things in their current environment are causing them to feel unsafe and how we can address them together.

When we talked to people who use drug about the impact of the toxic drug supply, they told us about the dope sickness, they told us about desperation, the fear and the “every person for themselves” attitude that was created. They did not like what had become of their community. They grieved the way things used to be before the drug supply became so toxic, before the pandemic. And they grieved the leaders they loved and respected who have been lost over the past 7 years.

So we asked them what they wanted to do about it.

What they told us was that they wanted to restore the positive aspects of street culture. That they wanted to be part of the solution to the concerns of neighbours and businesses. They told us that they wanted us to help them to address the things that were impacting their sense of safety.

The Ontario Government’s decision to close supervise consumption sites in Ontario was rationalized by concerns about vulnerable children being exposed to drug use and discarded syringes. People who use drugs, many of whom grew up as vulnerable children who the system failed to protect, couldn’t agree more! In fact, the first thing, they wanted to address was addressing drug use in front of kids, and within a week or two they restored the community norm of people shouting “kids up” whenever they saw a family with kids on the block and everyone putting their drugs away until after the family passed by and the kids were out of sight.

There are policy alternatives to prohibitionist closures of consumption sites that would restore balance to communities and make safer downtowns for all.

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