Research Results
Insite has been subject to rigorous, independent third party research and evaluation by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, recognized as one of the world’s leading research organizations.
The goal of the Centre’s research is to assess an injection site’s role in reducing the harm associated with injection drug use to individuals and the community. The research focuses on Insite’s impact on overdoses, the health of injection drug users, their appropriate use of health and social services, and the health, social, legal and incarceration costs associated with injection drug use.
The Centre’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, and The Lancet.
Results include:
- Insite is leading to increased uptake into detoxification programs and addiction treatment. (New England Journal of Medicine)
- Insite has not led to an increase in drug-related crime, rates of arrest for drug trafficking, assaults and robbery were similar after the facility’s opening, and rates of vehicle break-ins/theft declined significantly. (Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy)
- Insite has reduced the number of people injecting in public and the amount of injection-related litter in the downtown eastside. (Canadian Medical Association Journal)
- Insite is attracting the highest-risk users – those more likely to be vulnerable to HIV infection and overdose, and who were contributing to problems of public drug use and unsafe syringe disposal. (American Journal of Preventive Medicine)
- Insite has reduced overall rates of needle sharing in the community, and among those who used the supervised injection site for some, most or all of their injections, 70% were less likely to report syringe sharing. (The Lancet)
- Nearly one-third of Insite users received information relating to safer injecting practices. Those who received help injecting from fellow injection drug users on the streets were more than twice as likely to have received safer injecting education at Insite. (The International Journal of Drug Policy)
- Insite is not increasing rates of relapse among former drug users, nor is it a negative influence on those seeking to stop drug use. (British Medical Journal)
- Insite is preventing overdose deaths and reducing hospital visits (The International Journal of Drug Policy)
Health Outcomes
The research also points to positive health outcomes from the facility. Insite is part of Vancouver Coastal Health’s continuum of care for people with addiction, mental illness and HIV/AIDS and, as a result, it has connected users of the facility with other health services.
Over a one-year period, Insite counsellors made more than 4,084 referrals, with close to 40 per cent of those to addiction counselling. People using Insite are more likely to enter detox, with one in five regular visitors beginning a detox program. The facility also cut down on deaths from overdoses.
Of the 500 overdoses that occurred at the site over a two-year period, none resulted in a fatality. If these overdoses happened on the street, many of these people may have died.
Other research results show*:
- 7,648 unique individuals registered at Insite
- Women made up 27% of clients
- Aboriginal people made up 19% of clients
- Heroin was used in 42% of injections
- Cocaine was used in 26% of injections
- Morphine was used in 11% of injections
- 696 overdoses resulted in no fatalities
- 6,354 referrals were made with 40% of them made to addiction counselling
- Referral to withdrawal management: 618
- Referral to methadone maintenance: 2 per week
- Daily average visits: 645
- Average number of visits per month, per person: 11
- Busiest day: March 28, 2007 (1034 visits in 18 hours)
- Number of nursing care interventions: 10,089
- Number of nursing interventions for abscess care: 3,130
*All totals or averages are for the two-year period from April 1, 2004 to March 31, 2007.
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