HARM REDUCTION – Consumption & Treatment Service (CTS)
Consumption & Treatment Service
The CTS provides supervised injection services to address the opioid crisis. It offers integrated, wrap-around services that connect clients who use drugs to primary care, treatment, and other health and social services.
This program offers a safe environment, along with counselling, referral services and harm reduction education & supplies as well as immediate support in the event of an overdose.
In this space, clients are provided with sterile injection supplies, education, overdose prevention and intervention and nursing staff, among other services and referrals.
Social Navigators connect clients with housing and employment supports, as well as addictions & mental health counselling.
Benefits:
- Reduces the number of drug overdoses through safe injection education
- Reduces risk factors that lead to infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis
- Reduces strain on Emergency Departments, which reduces cost of health care service
- Enables access and increases the use of detox & drug treatment services
- Connection to other health and social services
- Provides safe injection sites
- Provides education about opioid tolerance & risks of overdosing.
- Reduces the number of needles discarded in public
CTS Hours:
Monday: 10:30am – 10:30pm
Tuesday: 10:30am – 10:30pm
Wednesday: 12:30pm- 10:30pm
Thursday: 10:30am – 10:30pm
Friday: 10:30am – 10:30pm
Saturday: 4:00pm – 10:30pm
Sunday: 4:00pm – 10:30pm
More information of what we do is published monthly and made available at the link below:
CTS OPEN HOUSE
Visit our Consumption and Treatment Services for an Open House tour. These occur every 2nd Wednesday of the Month between 10:30am – 11:30am. Tours are by appointment only.
Please contact us to book an appointment. Telephone : 905-522-3233 Email: connections@hucchc.com
- Take a tour
- Find out about the services
- Get information on substance use & Have your questions answered
- Learn about how you can support the CTS
Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) are integrated, wrap-around services that connect clients who use drugs to primary care, treatment, and other health and social services. They operate as lifeguard stations for intravenous drug use. They provide a safe environment, harm reduction supplies and immediate support in the case of an overdose.
What are Consumption and Treatment Services?
- They are a lifeguard stations for drug use.
- They are a safe, hygienic environment for people to consume pre-obtained drugs under the supervision of trained and qualified staff in the case of an overdose.
- They provide sterile injection supplies, education, overdose prevention and intervention, nursing staff, among other services & referrals. The Consumption and Treatment Service connects our clients to social navigators, housing supports, employment supports, as well as, addictions counselling & mental health counselling.
- The Consumption and Treatment Service provides low barrier, lifesaving service to address the opioid crisis which has affected the Hamilton area quite rapidly.
What are the benefits of a CTS?
- Reduces the number of drug overdoses.
- Reduces the risk factors leading to infectious diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis, educating.
clients to safe practices, and provide sharps bins containers. - Reduces the strain on Emergency Departments, thus reducing the cost of health care services.
- Enables access to & increasing the use of detox & drug treatment services.
- Connects people with other health & social services.
- Provides safe sites to inject.
- Provides education about opioid tolerance & risk of overdosing.
- Reduces the number of carelessly discarded needles from public spaces.
- Used needles are routinely collected by staff in the surrounding area.
Do crime rates increase around a CTS?
Based on peer-reviewed empirical research, there has been no evidence linking the presence of Consumption & Treatments Services and increased criminal activity in the surrounding areas.
-Source: Livingston, J.D. Supervised consumption sites and crime: scrutinizing the methodological weaknesses and aberrant results of a government report in Alberta, Canada. Harm Reduction J 18, 4 (2021).