Research Report Round-up: Preliminary assessment of first supervised consumption service in Sudbury, Ontario

Published Jun 28, 2023

Overview

All of Ontario is seeing an increase in drug overdoses, but the Northern communities, such as the City of Greater Sudbury, are experiencing an even larger increase. Governments are addressing this problem by approving and funding supervised consumption services, where people who use drugs can bring their own substances and use them under supervision. One such supervised-consumption site, The Spot, was approved in Sudbury but has not received provincial funding. Researchers conducted a study to assess the impact of The Spot on people who use drugs in Sudbury and identify improvements for this service. The results suggest the site offers many benefits to the community and can reduce the risks associated with drug use, including reducing fatal overdoses.

What this report is about

Researchers conducted a study to assess the impact of a supervised consumption service called The Spot, in Sudbury, Ontario. Northern Ontario communities, such as the City of Greater Sudbury, have been experiencing a large increase in drug overdoses. In this region, opioid-related deaths are double the provincial average. Provincial governments are addressing this problem by funding supervised consumption services, where people who use drugs can bring their own substances and use them under supervision.

In 2022, the Government of Canada approved The Spot, which was built in a small trailer. Although the site did not receive provincial funding, it received $1.1 million for one year of funding from Sudbury city council in 2022. To receive sustainable government funding, The Spot will need to prove it meets federal and provincial requirements on an ongoing basis.

The report examined the impact of The Spot on people who use drugs in the City of Sudbury and possible service improvements.

The research methods

This assessment involved a brief five-minute survey to collect demographic and substance use profiles of 20 individuals who used the consumption room. There were also one-on-one interviews with nine site staff and 20 clients to explore their perceptions of the site and its impact on drug use patterns and associated harms. The researchers also combined data on use of the site and member profiles.

Participant responses

The data showed that use of the consumption services grew consistently over the six-month study period. There were 256 unique clients who visited the site and 706 total consumptions. Twenty-four of these were peer-to-peer consumptions, meaning that someone accompanied the person into the consumption room. The most commonly injected drug was fentanyl with 452 consumptions.

Staff attended to nine overdoses, two of which required naloxone. The site also distributed various harm-reduction supplies to people who use drugs, including syringes, alcohol swabs and sterile water.

The interview responses included common comments:

• Participants and staff said the site prevented and responded to overdoses and provided a safe and comfortable environment to consume drugs.
• The most common benefit was an increased feeling of safety when using the site.
• Participants said the site has the potential to reduce public drug use, which can reduce experiences of stigmatization among people who use drugs.
• The majority of participants said the staff working at The Spot were welcoming and personable and felt confident in the expertise and training of staff. Participants said staff made them feel comfortable and said they had positive and non-stigmatizing interactions with staff.
• Participants appreciated the inclusion of peer harm reduction workers who had lived and living experience with drug use employed at the site.
• One barrier to using the services was the lack of inhalation services at The Spot, since many participants were both injection and inhalation users. They also felt the site should allow people using their services to split or share their drugs with others.
•  Other barriers included the site’s location—a five-minute drive or 15–20-minute walk—and its hours of operation—from 10 am to 4 pm, seven days a week—which did not reflect the times when these services are typically needed.
• Many respondents were not aware that The Spot offers drug-checking services, which allow individuals to check their drugs for fentanyl or other contaminants.
• The limited funding was mentioned as a challenge to staffing, hours of operation and infrastructure (including lack of privacy in the consumption room).

Recommendations for improving the site

Participants made several suggestions to improve the use of the site’s services and its sustainability:

• educating the community about the site’s potential to reduce drug consumption on neighbourhood streets
• relocating the site to downtown Sudbury, where people who use drugs tend to be
• improving its infrastructure, including adding privacy partitions
• adding inhalation services to the current injection services
• increasing the hours of service.

How this report can be used

This report provides insights about the perspectives of people who use drugs using a supervised consumption services site in Sudbury and the staff who work there. These findings may be of use to policy-makers and researchers seeking to develop these types of services in other communities.

See more related to

• poisoning
• harm reduction