Cambridge CTS finds potential service provider

Another step toward consumption and treatment services being offered in Cambridge.

The city has identified 150 Main St. as the future home of a CTS site and now that future home also has a potential future operator with the AIDS Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo & Area (ACCKWA) stepping up to say it wants to help provide the potentially life-saving services.

“What we want is a safe place where people who are going to use substances anyway can use without stigma and receive supports to keep them as healthy as they can be,” said ACCKWA Executive Director, Ruth Cameron, adding the site will also open doors to other services like recovery and various forms of treatment.

ACCKWA says there is a clear need for these services across the region and in Cambridge specifically.

They say in just one year, from 2019 to 2020, the number of fatal opioid overdoses in Waterloo Region spiked nearly 60 per cent, from 61 in 2019 to 105 in 2020.

“In Cambridge over the last four or five years, we've lost around 100 individuals to overdose and I'm certain that the community does not want another life lost due to drug poisoning or drug toxicity,” said Cameron.

The future CTS site though has proven to be a hot-button issue in the community though and one those involved with this bid say will require continued engagement.

“There are alternate narratives in the community and that is to be expected,” said Kristen Kerr, Executive Director, Stonehenge Therapeutic Community and Cambridge North Dumfries Ontario Health Team Steering Committee Mental Health & Addictions Lead. “There is a lot of stigma around individuals who use substances and that is something, as healthcare organizations and social service organizations, we are continually working to challenge and to change.”

“So part of our job as the OHT is to help challenge the narrative around substance use being a moral issue or a behavioural issue, it is a health issue.”

The CND OHT is one of the community partners ACCKWA says it would be working with and, while the application hasn't been filed yet, the group's bid is already finding lots of local support.

“I have known ACCKWA for many a long year and have been a strong supporter of them, and the work that they have done in Cambridge has been really wonderful and I really believe that they will be the proper organization to lead this CTS,” said Cambridge Councillor Donna Reid. “I think it is the right time and it's about time we had a CTS in Cambridge and I believe it's in the right place at 150 Main.”

“Cambridge Memorial Hospital is fully supportive of ACCKWA’s application to operate the CTS site at 150 Main St.,” said Patrick Gaskin, President & CEO, Cambridge Memorial Hospital in a release. “This is a definite gap in the continuum of care for residents within Cambridge and North Dumfries and ACCKWA has both the experience and the expertise to ensure this life saving service is launched.”

As for timing, ACCKWA says it expects the application process alone to take several months and, if accepted, it's also unclear how long after that it will be before the site is up and running.

“There is an overwhelming understanding of the urgency to get this service put in place,” said Kerr. “As soon as we get the green light we would be working to move that forward as soon as we possibly can.”

ACCKWA did also point to another option which has been taken in other communities which would see a temporary site set up to begin offering some services until the permanent home at 150 Main St. is ready to take over.

Cameron did also note once the permanent site is up and running, safe supply could also follow.

“I would assume that at some future stage when we have CTS in Cambridge we will absolutely make sure that there is a pathway,” she said. “It is an absolute, common sense, future development once services are established.”