Wayside
Chapel T-Room
Elly Inta
ref:
May 99 Heroinsight
On
3 May 1999 at 2.00 p.m. the Wayside Chapel Tolerance
Room (T-Room) opened its doors to intravenous drug
users. The T-Room was formed after seven months
of debate and careful, secret planning. Some of
the
founding personnel are FDS members, as are many
of the volunteers and registered nurses staffing
the T-Room.
These
FDS members are involved as individuals and not
as representatives
of Family Drug Support.
Following
one of the recommendations made by Commissioner
Wood in the Final Report on the Royal Commission
into the NSW Police Service:
.
. . consideration be given to the establishment
of safe, sanitary injecting rooms under the licence
or supervision of the Department of Health, and
to
Amendment of the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act
1985, the NSW Parliament set up a Joint Select Committee
Into Safe Injecting Rooms chaired by Ann Symonds,
in June 1997.
In
February 1998, despite much evidence being presented
to support
implementation of Justice Wood's recommendation,
the establishment or trial of Safe Injecting Rooms
was not supported by six of the ten Members of the
Committee
Several
FDS members expressed concern about Justice Wood's
recommendations being politically sidestepped, and
urged a proactive response.
Towards
the end of last year, the Reverend Ray Richmond
approached Dr Alex Wodak, Tony Trimingham and Ann
Symonds to consider the possibility of setting up
a safe injecting room at the Wayside Chapel. For
the next seven months the issues were debated, feasibility
studies undertaken, advice sought from leading health
officials, police and legal people and finally the
logistics drawn up.
Reluctant
to paint politicians into corners and have them
compromised before the State Election, it was decided
to open the T-Room after the elections but before
the NSW Drug Summit.
None
of the people involved in the T-Room condone drug
use.
The
Wayside Chapel T-Room has been set up as a working
model so that Members of Parliament, policy makers
and officials can see the concept in
operation. It follows the European model with strict
guidelines. It is designed to save lives, to provide
a hygienic environment run by trained personnel
for drug-users who have not yet been able, for whatever
reason, to overcome their addiction.
Affording
human dignity, tolerance and compassion to a marginalised
group of
society, properly run and supervised safe injecting
rooms are multi- purposed. Blood-borne diseases
such as Hep C and HIV are inhibited by the provision
of sterile, disposable equipment and the community
is protected from disease by the safe, responsible
disposal of the used equipment.
The
people involved in the setting up and running of
the T-Room are exasperated by the never-ending recycling
of words, theories, thoughts and ideas on the drug
scene in Australia/NSW and have decided it is time
for action. To this end the T-Room is intended to
focus public and political attention on the issues
surrounding illicit drug use. It is intended to
draw attention of the plight of illicit drug users.
Ideally,
an injecting room should be set up as part of a
strategy, a whole service, a complete program to
deal with and assist those who are in distress because
of their drug-taking. This is how injecting rooms
are operating in parts of Europe.
Specifically,
the Wayside Chapel T-Room is a symbolic gesture
it is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in May
from 2.00 p.m. to 4.00 p.m. The rules, drawn up
from the European models, are prominently displayed
on the corridor walls leading to the T-Room and
in the room itself. CPR charts are on the T-Room
walls. A security guard is on duty outside the Chapel
and another by the door of the T-Room. Two volunteer
personnel monitor access to the T Room and two more
are stationed in the recovery coffee shop, vigilant
to any adverse reactions after the users have injected.
Inside
the T-Room are two registered nurses and a social
worker. At no time
does anyone, other than the user touch the drugs.
The user must supply his/ her own substance. The
social worker asks the user three specific questions:
-
Are
you over 18 years of age?
-
Are
you a regular drug user?
-
Have
you used in the past hour?
Having
satisfied the criteria, the user is led to one of
six tables where equipment is provided to clean
the table and lay a paper tablecloth. They are then
given a paper bag containing disposable syringe
and needle, two sterile swabs, a plastic spoon,
two cottonwool balls, sterile water and a tourniquet.
Only one person per table and no drug sharing. After
the user is finished, he/she disposes of the used
needle in the sealed `Sharps Bin' next to each table,
wraps everything else in the tablecloth which he/she
places in another garbage bin and finally wipes
down the table again before leaving. If they want
information about vein care, detox and/or rehab
facilities, or any other aspect of harm minimisation
the social worker and nursing staff are prepared
to talk to them and provide relevant literature
and contacts.
I
am writing this report at the end of the first week
of operation. Many of the users have been too timid
to avail themselves of the service because of the
immense media attention and constant presence. We
expect that to die down as the `story' is milked
of all potential. We have had five or six users
benefit from the T-Room each day and they have been
happy with the service. As far as raising public
awareness and attracting attention to the plight
of injecting users, these aspects have exceeded
expectations.
he symbolic gesture has `set Sydney on fire'.
The
police have visited twice. They have had to act
on complaints lodged.
We believe these are mischief-making complaints.
On both occasions the
police left with no arrests made. We applaud the
Reverend Ray Richmond's
brave bold initiative and those involved are proud
to be associated with the
project.
