The National Native Addictions Partnership Foundation Welcomes New Federal Funding For Aboriginal Addictions Services In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

Muskoday, Saskatchewan, June 6, 2008. The National Native Addictions Partnership Foundation welcomes the government’s recent announcement of $2 million dedicated to helping First Nations and Inuit recover from addictions to alcohol and illicit drugs in Vancouver, in addition to the $10 million funding to be provided over five years to find treatment solutions for residents of Vancouver’s Downtown eastside.

As reported by Minister Clement, "First Nations and Inuit people make up approximately 3% of the Canadian population yet they make up over 25% of the people living in Vancouver's downtown eastside". NNAPF supports the government’s commitment to address the specific needs of First Nations and Inuit individuals in the Vancouver’s downtown eastside.

We are sure that this funding will be welcome to those agencies providing crucial services in a very difficult environment.

In regard to services offered by safe injection sites, NNAPF’s position is that they have a place and role to play in an integrated continuum of care approach that includes services that are Aboriginal-specific. NNAPF’s aim is to help improve accessibility for Aboriginal people to a full continuum of care adapted to their needs.

NNAPF’s support of safe injection sites is based in the principle that drug users are still part of some family – regardless of their addiction – and we have a responsibility to help them in any way we can.

Potentially, safe injection sites provide an open door to reach hard-to-reach, vulnerable youth and adults and they offer opportunities to turn lives around. The situation and marginalisation of Aboriginal drug users, in the vast majority of cases, are rooted in Aboriginal-specific traumatic life experiences.

NNAPF recognizes that there is at present in Canada split views regarding the continuation of safe injection sites. The Foundation’s position is based not only on the Canadian experience but on the experience of many other countries in other parts of the world, who have included safe injection sites as part of a package of measures designed to "reduce the consumption of drugs and diminish their harmful social and health effects" (as in the recent case of Portugal and Britain). Their decision to establish safe injection sites is based not only on economic factors but on the human and social benefits regarding the reduction of private and public harm.

NNAPF considers that within the limited resources and time allocated to it, the INSITE program in Vancouver has proven to provide many health and social benefits which could be duplicated and adapted for an Aboriginal population if certain measures were in place.

Services offered at safe injection sites could be translated into growing economic savings particularly in the area of medical and hospitalisation costs of Aboriginal users.

With opportunities to incorporate a wider variety of components for an effective, culturally-relevant continuum of care, NNAPF believes that these services could improve Aboriginal drug users’ participation and opportunities to enhance their engagement, stabilization and recovery.