Community and
Protective Services Committee
Comité des services communautaires et de protection
and Council / et au Conseil
18 February 2009 / le 18 février 2009
Submitted by/Soumis par: Steve Kanellakos, Deputy City
Manager/Directeur municipal adjoint,
City
Operations/Opérations municipales
Contact Person/Personne ressource : Dr. Isra
Levy, Medical Officer of Health
Ottawa Public Health/Santé publique Ottawa
(613) 580-2424, x 23681
SUBJECT:
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|
OBJET :
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mise à jour sur le programme amélioré de ramassage des aiguilles et
seringues jetées |
That Community and Protective Services Committee and Council receive this report for information.
Que le Comité des services communautaires et de protection ainsi que le Conseil prennent connaissance du présent rapport.
On June 25, 2008, Council
approved enhancements to the Discarded Needle, Syringe
Pick-Up Program laid out in an action plan developed by Ottawa Public
Health (OPH) following a report to the Community and Protective Services
Committee (CPSC). The purpose of this report is to
provide members of Ottawa’s Board of Health with an update on the progress made
on key initiatives of the needle hazard reduction action plan.
DISCUSSION
Ottawa Public Health’s goal continues to be, to promote public health and to eliminate the exposure to health hazards in the community associated with discarded needles and other drug-use related equipment. Our response is built around the following five key components:
· Reinvigorating a city-wide integrated response;
· Program enhancements;
· Partnerships;
· Liaising with the community; and
· Realigning organizational accountabilities
The "Integrated
City Wide Response to Discarded Needles Committee" (ICWRDNC) was
reinvigorated and regular meetings reinstated in June 2008. The purpose of the committee is to:
·
share and document discarded needle pick-up
policies and statistics for all involved City services;
·
discuss issues related to discarded needles
pick-up; and
·
communicate the City’s integrated response to
the public.
First steps have
included the sharing of information, policies and procedures of all City
departments involved in recovering discarded needles. The Committee’s terms of reference have been approved, and a
review of a response matrix has been completed to ensure:
§
the appropriate department is mobilized for
discarded needle recovery; and
§
the proper routing of requests, call volumes,
challenges and action items has been completed.
The group’s membership
was expanded to include Surface Operations, Solid Waste, By-law Services,
Police Services, Parks and Recreation, Transit Services, Traffic and Parking,
Public Health, and Corporate Communications. Embedded within the Committee’s
terms of reference, is that each representative acts as a liaison to make sure
the Committee’s decisions and recommendations are carried forward within their
branch or service.
An early result of the Committee’s work has been the identification of opportunities for integrating services and program enhancements. For example, Solid Waste Services reported an increase in the number of discarded needles left in curbside residential waste during the past year. To assist in preventing injury to sanitation workers and the public, Solid Waste and OPH have developed an integrated approach to dealing with this emerging issue. Solid Waste will call OPH via the needle hotline if discarded needles are present in residential garbage and need to be retrieved. Solid Waste will also send a copy of the incident report to OPH indicating if the area needs to be proactively monitored on a regular basis for discarded needles. If a need to provide safe needle disposal information is identified, targeted information and education can be provided to the Site Van and Harm Reduction Program clients served in that area. Upon request, group education sessions can also be provided.
The Committee
continues to serve as a forum to share issues, reports of needle finds and
identify opportunities for integrated approaches, with the aim to best serve the
residents of Ottawa. A representative from the community organisation Safer
Ottawa has been invited to several committee meetings, to share perspectives
and opportunities for service enhancements,
but to date has been unable to attend.
Needle hotline and
proactive monitoring
On
July 1, 2008 a direct hotline for Ottawa residents to make requests for
discarded needle pick-up became operational. The hotline can also be used by
residents to request information.
During
the period of July 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008, 27 phone calls had been
placed to the hotline, resulting in the retrieval of 247 needles. The total
number does not include needles discarded in biohazard containers that Public
Heath Inspector trainees have also picked up following a hotline request.
Following discussions Ottawa’s 3-1-1 action line (311) managers and the ICWRDNC, the hotline has evolved to serve mostly operational needs in order to ensure quick response for needle recovery, while 311continues to serve as the main point of contact for Ottawa residents requiring City services. The low number of calls to the hotline is a result of several factors including a reported relative decrease in the number of discarded needles in the community over the summer months and the decision based on input received at the Community and Protective Services Committee on June 19, 2008, to limit the public promotion of the hotline number and instead direct requests for retrieval through 311 action line.
Residents
using OPH discarded needle recovery services reported being satisfied with and
appreciative of the response. Enhancing rapid respond time has been a goal of
the program and the vast majority of requests for needle retrieval have been
responded to within 90 minutes.
Students and PHI trainees
respond to requests from the needle hotline as well as proactively conduct
routine monitoring of known needle hotspots. In total, up to 15 sites were proactively monitored on a daily
basis throughout the summer and fall of 2008. The areas changed throughout the
monitoring period due to the transient nature of the intravenous drug user
population. By the end of November 2008, proactive monitoring yielded recovery
of 10 needles. Proactive monitoring has ceased for the winter months and will
resume in the spring.
In total 1,517 discarded needles were retrieved in 2008 by collaborative
action amongst City staff, residents and community agencies.
expansion
of the needle retrieval program
OPH has expanded the Needle
Retrieval Program (Needle Hunters), which is provided by an external agency
(Causeway) responsible for the implementation of daily clean-up operations to
detect and safely remove all discarded needles and other drug use related
products from Ottawa neighbourhoods. Following a public tendering process soliciting bids from
interested parties, Causeway the successful proponent continues to deliver this
program. . Under
the renewed contract the hours of the program were extended and the collection
areas were expanded from three areas to four to encompass, Byward Market/
Lowertown, Centretown, Hintonburg and Vanier.
The
Needle Hunters retrieved 3,350 needles in 2008. In 2007, a total
of 1,414 needles were retrieved.
Needle
drop boxes (black boxes) are one of the best solutions for the safe disposal of
used needles and syringes reducing those inappropriately disposed of in the
community. OPH recently expanded the number of needle drop boxes across the
city from 18 to the20 sites currently available in Ottawa. In 2008, 229,400 needles were retrieved
through this program.
Community
perspective and input is very important to OPH, therefore input has been sought
to determine potential locations for new needle drop boxes. OPH recently completed a consultation process
with stakeholders to determine potential locations for 16 new boxes.
Stakeholders consulted included: interested community members and groups,
Community Health Centres, Police Services, the Health and Social Services
Advisory Committee, Crime Prevention Ottawa, Business Improvement Areas, City
Councillors and staff. Since Council
approval of program enhancements in June 2008, 2 new drop boxes were installed
at the Elizabeth Bruyère Centre and the Centretown Community Health Centre.
Education regarding Safe Disposal of Needles
One emerging issue and service
gap that has been identified is the higher incidence of needles discarded in
residential curbside garbage. Solid Waste Services and Ottawa Public Health are
working together to identify neighbourhoods in need of proactive monitoring and
to identify opportunities for disseminating information on safe needle disposal.
OPH has
partnered with Solid Waste, in planning an event to promote an upcoming
Household Hazardous Waste Depot, which will educate residents about what can go
in the garbage, what goes in the recycling boxes and what needs special
disposal. OPH will be inserting a safe
needle disposal message into information on the latter category.
As well
OPH and the ICWRDNC will be exploring an opportunity
with Crime Prevention Ottawa to include a section on the safe disposal of
discarded needles in their publication “Safety and Security in Rental Buildings
–An Information guide for Ottawa’s Residential Landlords”. This booklet has been designed to assist
landlords of small- and medium-size properties to understand their roles and
responsibilities, and the legal options available to combat illegal activity
and other interference with the peaceful enjoyment of people’s homes.
Working with individuals who use
needles
Ottawa Public Health operates the Site Clean Needle Syringe Program (Harm Reduction and Van programs). This program operates on the harm reduction principle of providing clients with an adequate amount of sterile needles to meet their requirements for safe injecting in order to prevent the spread of communicable diseases, primarily HIV and Hepatitis-C virus and to minimise the risks associated with substance use in the community. Our Public Health professionals educate intravenous drug users on how to dispose of needles safely and the risks of not doing so. We provide them with safe disposal containers and information on various disposal locations. In 2008, the Site Harm Reduction and Site Van programs retrieved approximately 273,415 needles.
Organisational
Realignment
OPH has
completed the organisational realignment as noted to Council last June
transferring responsibility for needle pick up to the -Environmental Hazards
program in the Environmental Health and Protection Division at OPH, whose
program mandate is to eliminate health hazards in the community.
Comprehensive web
package
Council
also directed OPH staff to ensure statistics concerning the numbers of needles
distributed and retrieved annually are made available on the City’s website. To
ensure that the posted information is relevant, adequate and represents open
and transparent communication with the public, consultations with identified
stakeholders took place. The ICWRDNC, the
Site Program Departmental Consultative Group (SPDCG), and the Joint Action Team
on Harm Reduction have been consulted. It is anticipated that the web package
will be available by early March 2009.
The web pages will include information on programs such as the expanded Needle Hunter and Needle Drop Box, as well as OPH’s role in needle pick-up and routine monitoring of hotspots. Needle find density maps will also be posted based on our program statistics. The web information will be updated quarterly.
· Needles retrieved from needle drop boxes
· Discarded needles retrieved by OPH via request and routine monitoring.
· Number of requests OPH received for needle pick-up and number of times OPH met one hour response time for needle pick-up.
· Number of discarded needles retrieved by other City branches and services (e.g. Police, Surface Operations, By-Law, Solid Waste), residents and community agencies (e.g. Shepherds of Good Hope)
· Discarded needles retrieved by Needle Hunters
· Used needles collected by Site Program
· Needles distributed by Site Program
A City-wide integrated response has
resulted in the retrieval of approximately 507,692 discarded needles, during 2008, though these numbers are not
directly comparable because of more rigorous estimate assumption rules being
introduced in 2008.[1]
Discarded Needle Retrieval Statistics
Number of discarded needles
retrieved from January 1 to December 31, 2008.
|
Source |
Number of discarded needles
retrieved |
|
Needles Retrieved from Needle
Drop Boxes |
229,400 (estimate) |
|
EHP Needle Hotline |
247 (actual) |
|
EHP Proactive Monitoring |
10 (actual) |
|
Needles Retrieved By other
City Services |
1270 (actual) |
|
Needle Hunters |
3,350 (actual) |
|
Retrieved by Clean Needle
Syringe Program |
273,415 (estimate) |
|
|
|
|
Total |
507,692 (estimate)* |
* In 2008, 372,136 sterile needle syringes were distributed through
service contacts with clients.
Next Steps:
Over the next few months, OPH and its city partners will continue to implement and monitor the action plan, including but not limited to:
· Monitoring city-wide needle retrieval protocols
· Installing new Needle Drop Boxes
· Continue to identify opportunities to raise public awareness on the safe disposal of needles and syringes
· Completing the evaluation framework for the City’s Clean Needle Syringe program
· Initiating a new front line provider partnership between OPH, Ottawa Police Services and Community partner agencies.
The motion adopted by Council on June 25, 2008 requires the Medical Officer of Health to provide a comprehensive report on the efforts related to the broader Enhanced Discarded Clean Needle Syringe Pick-up Program. This report is intended to keep members of the Board of Health current on our efforts related to one key component-retrieval of discarded needles and syringes. Information contained in this report will be updated and used to inform Council in the fall of 2009.
No consultation was specifically undertaken as part of the development of this report.
Legal Services was consulted to ensure there were no privacy or liability concerns associated with the web posting of needle finds.
There are no financial implications associated with this report
Ottawa Public Health will action any direction received as part of consideration of this report.
[1] Prior to 2008 our estimates were based on weight. In 2008 we independently verified the veracity of our assumptions by doing a manual count of the contents and weight of a sample of black boxes