St. Albans has become a bulwark against the rising tide of crisis in a neighbourhood overrun with addiction and homelessness, even supplying naloxone to paramedics when official supplies run low
Since the congregation took naloxone training in March, there’s been seven outside St. Albans. But that number is quite modest. At the drop-in centre beneath the church, where some of Ottawa’s most afflicted seek daytime refuge once the overnight shelters close, they’re doing at least one [naloxone application] a day.
That morning, a man burst through the doors of St. Albans church in downtown Ottawa, like a bolt of lightning through an otherwise quiet Sunday service, shouting, “Someone’s overdosing!”
Ms. Alie, who is neither a doctor nor an expert in overdoses, jumped to her feet and rushed outside carrying six doses of naloxone, the drug that works like an antidote to opioids.
Ms. Alie and her fellow parishioners had recently taken lessons on how to bring a person back from the brink; how to administer life-saving naloxone to someone overdosing on opioids.
Drug users who frequent a drop-in centre in the basement of St. Albans began arriving not just incapacitated from the opioids, but also bleeding from the mouth.
As Ms. Alie called 911, two other people began administering her naloxone to the unconscious man, using small dispensers designed for spraying it up the nose, for fast absorption.
At the drop-in centre beneath the church, where some of Ottawa’s most afflicted seek daytime refuge once the overnight shelters close, they’re doing at least one revival a day.
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Sure, but people quit addictions all the time. Smoking is on a massive decline, drinking too. Somehow the drug that can kill you in an instant is so popular that churches are handing out kits to save them. Insanity.
It's not so crazy when you realize that people are going through tremendous amounts of pain and suffering every day. When you've tried everything available to you and nothing improves, what's the next logical step for getting rid of that pain? A life like that isn't worth living, so realistically, what are you giving up on by turning to drugs?