About 400 people a month used the facility, which opened more than 20 years ago. In May 2008, the needle-exchange was evicted from its downtown location after months of complaints from businesses and residents about noise, crime, garbage and human waste on the two-block street on which it was located.

CARBC’s report on patterns of substance use among street-involved injecting drug users finds that rates of needle sharing have remained significantly higher in Victoria than Vancouver over the past three years. By late 2009, 23 per cent of injection drug users interviewed in Victoria reported needle sharing compared with only eight per cent in Vancouver. Also by late 2009, 89 per cent of Victoria respondents injected daily or more often compared with 29 per cent in Vancouver.

Study co-author Andrew Ivsins is a UVic sociology graduate student and a research assistant at CARBC. “The closure of the fixed site needle exchange in May 2008 and the subsequent 15,000 fewer clean needles distributed each month in Victoria since then likely explain these results.” He also notes that Vancouver has several fixed site needle exchanges located throughout the metropolitan area.

The report, Drug Use Trends in Victoria and Vancouver, is available online at http://carbc.ca/Portals/0/PropertyAgent/2111/Files/299/CARBC_Bulletin6.pdf.  It recommends reinstating at least one fixed site needle exchange in Victoria as part of a comprehensive range of services to maintain the health of injecting drug users and to minimize the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C. For the same reasons, provision of clean crack pipes is recommended as one response to the high prevalence of crack cocaine use, an increasing trend in cities across Canada.

“Frequent injection drug use is significantly increasing in Victoria and decreasing in Vancouver. These opposite trends may have been worsened by the closure of the needle exchange in Victoria,” says study co-author Dr. Scott Macdonald, CARBC assistant director.

Several significant trends in drug use were noted among injection drug users in the Victoria and Vancouver samples. In Victoria, both marijuana and cocaine use has been decreasing while ecstasy use has been increasing; use of these same substances in Vancouver has not changed significantly. In Vancouver, use of crystal meth has been decreasing whereas methadone and crack use has been increasing; in Victoria, use of crystal meth, methadone and crack has not changed significantly.

The study is part of an ongoing surveillance exercise in both cities covering several high-risk populations of substance users. Since the fall of 2007, up to 160 illicit drug users have been sampled in Victoria and Vancouver every six months. See www.AODmonitoring.ca for further data on substance use in BC.

As many of you may know, in Victoria, BC, we have been facing a drastic reduction in the availability of harm reduction services. On May 31, 2008, the city’s only primary needle exchange shut its doors, after 20 years of operating, because the service had outgrown its funding and physical location, two issues that the funder (our local health authority) and other stakeholders had been unwilling to help us address. Neighbourhood pressure, including a pending law suit, and the inability to find a new location, forced us to move our services to a mobile delivery model.

The foot/bike mobile service was meant to be a temporary stop gap. Valuable though mobile services are, they cannot provide the necessary services that can only be offered at a fixed site in an accessible location. Now, over 2 years later, at AIDS Vancouver Island we are still struggling to move through the political hurdles and other barriers to re-opening our service. While our harm reduction workers continue to pound the pavement to provide supplies and support and while several other service providers provide secondary needle exchange services (at low volumes), our clients still report difficulties accessing supplies. Our needle distribution numbers hover at of 60-70% the levels at our fixed site needle exchange, and relationships with clients continue to deteriorate as workers are unable to provide adequate education and support while delivering service on the sidewalk.

Stigma against people who use drugs continues to plague our “garden city” (which ironically clients refer to as the “gated city”). Until we are able to illustrate that needle exchanges operate “quietly,” integrated in neighbourhoods across the country, we may remain stuck in this rut.

For those of you who work at fixed site needle exchanges, I have a request. We need to get beyond the equation that needle exchange = chaos and public disorder. I am working on a PowerPoint presentation of what needle exchanges look like and would love to get photos from colleagues across the country. I have some from the HR network research project (http://www.canadianharmreduction.com/project/) but would love more. Images of the outside of your buildings and streetscape and inside your service (with smiling faces) would be very helpful. Please send images to communications@avi.org. Once completed, I will post the presentation to our website so that it can be of use to others.

Those of you who don’t work at needle exchanges – or who don’t have photos to share – and are concerned about the wellbeing of Canadian citizens who are unable to access this proven disease prevention and health promotion service, we invite you to write a brief note to the BC Minister of Healthy Living & Sport (http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/3-4.asp ) to urge a quick resolution to this issue.

In solidarity,
Andrea Langlois
Manager of Communications, Community Relations & Research
AIDS Vancouver Island

To download the The Code of Conduct/Financial Guidelines/Release of Liability please CLICK HERE.

To download the Application Form please CLICK HERE.  Please review the Code of Conduct/Financial Guidelines/Release of Liability document before submitting an application.  

The deadline for applications is Thursday, September 30th, by 4:00pm.

While we will take nominations from the floor at both the Forum and the AGM, the Nominations Committee has created a process that will help to:

·         Ensure that the Board of PAN has a full complement of Board members from every region;

·         Further inform PAN member organizations about the roles and responsibilities of board members;

·         Ensure that qualified folks end up joining the Board; and

·         Provide the voting membership with more opportunities to consider the qualifications of candidates in advance.

Why you might want to join our Board

This continues to be an exciting time for the network as we continue to make significant strides in providing quality professional development opportunities for the staff and volunteers of our member organizations, as well as leadership development training for PHAs throughout BC. 2009/2010 has been a year of significant growth and accomplishment for PAN and it is with confidence that we project an ongoing upward trajectory into 2010/2011. Come join our team and make a real difference at PAN by lending your voice and vision to the community-based response to the HIV/AIDS and HCV co-infection epidemics here in BC!  

What seats are up for election at PAN’s Fall meeting?

At this time, the following seats will be open for election at our Fall 2010 meeting.

• Northern: one designated PHA seat. & One open seat. (Vacancies remaining from 2009 AGM).
• Interior: one designated PHA seat. Chris MacKenzie, of the Living Positive Resource Centre, who will be completing his two-year term, has indicated he will be running for re-election as an incumbent and the Board endorses him in this.
• Fraser: one open seat (vacancy resulting from resignation of Kim Lloyd).  
• Vancouver Coastal: one designated PHA seat. Darren Lauscher, of the Vancouver Friends For Life Society, who will be completing his two-year term, has indicated he will be running for re-election as an incumbent and the Board endorses him in this. & One open seat (vacancy resulting from resignation of Stephanie Grant).
• Vancouver Island: one designated PHA seat. & One open seat. Katrina Jensen, of AIDS Vancouver Island, who will be completing her two-year term, has indicated she will be running for re-election as an incumbent and the Board endorses her in this. 
• Provincial Health Services: one open seat. Marcie Summers, of the Positive Women’s Network, who will be completing her two-year term, has indicated she will be running for re-election as an incumbent and the Board endorses her in this. 

Therefore, the Board is actively recruiting and seeking advance applications for the following five Board positions:

• Northern: one designated PHA seat, one open seat
• Fraser: one open seat
• Vancouver Coastal: one open seat
• Vancouver Island: one designated PHA seat 

Are you or someone at your PAN member organization interested in running for the Board?

If you wish to be considered by the Board Nominations Committee for one of these positions, we ask the following:

• That you register for the Fall meeting as an official PAN delegate by the deadline of July 30th, 2010
• That you complete a Board application that may found on PAN’s website at http://pacificaidsnetwork.org/about/board-of-directors/interested-in-joining-the-pan-board/
• That you provide a letter of endorsement from a representative of your PAN member organization (Executive Director or Board Chair or equivalent)
• That you return these documents to the following email address – board2010@pacificaidsnetwork.org (scanned version) by Monday, September 6th, 2010

The Nominations Committee will review all applications and will formulate their recommendations by September 15th, 2010.

Any and all applications received by the Nominations Committee (including for the applicants already being endorsed, above – namely, Chris, Karen, Katrina and Marcie), will be circulated in advance of the Forum and AGM as part of the AGM notice/package that will be going out to member agencies and organizations the 3rd week of September. This means that PAN member organizations will have the opportunity to review the applications/qualifications in advance of the meetings.

Will PAN still be taking nominations from the floor?

Yes, we will. However, we will still require that all PAN delegates who are nominated from the floor complete an application and provide proof of endorsement from their PAN member organization/agency.

What are the qualifications the Board is seeking in potential applicants?

What are the expectations of all Board members?

If you have questions regarding this process, require further information or want to hear more about our experiences of being on the Board of Directors, you can reach the Board Selection Committee via email at board2010@pacificaidsnetwork.org or contact Jennifer Evin Jones, Executive Director at 250.537.4082. 

The Level I Core Training has proven to be a huge success in B.C and the training is truly helping PHAs to realize their individual leadership potential and helping to strengthen a network of PHA leaders in the province.

For all the details please click here.

Chee Mamuk won in the category of Innovative Programs and Service Delivery,  Dr. Silvia Guillemi won in the category of Health Promotion and Harm Reduction.  Dr. Richard Harrigan won for Science/Research/Technology.  The Printing House won in the Philanthropy category.  Two lifetime achievement awards were also handed out, one to Irene Goldstone and the other to Diana Johansen.  And last but certainly not least the Kevin Brown PWA Hero Award went to Monique Desroches.

The PAN Board of Directors congratulates all of these outstanding award recipients for their contribution to the HIV/AIDS movement.