HIV North Society looking for community input

Apr 2, 2018 | 7:09 AM

The HIV North Society is looking for community input regarding a Mobile Supervised Consumption Service in Grande Prairie and has created a survey.

Executive Director Melissa Byers says they need feedback for their application for a Federal Exemption.

“So we’ve directly contacted individuals within a four-block radius of the locations that we are proposing for our mobile site however we want to open a survey to the broader Grande Prairie community just so we have a better understanding of what the community concerns are, what needs that we need to address moving forward.”

They need to have the information for the federal exemption in by the end of April and have the service operational in September.

“We are just basically looking for numbers and responses, we predict that a lot of the responses will be the same as the nationwide responses to community engagement so we are just looking to find ways to mitigate the community concern for a federal exemption.”

There will also be drop-in open houses at Grande Prairie Regional College:

– April 4th, 5-7 p.m. in room D208
– April 11th, 5-7 p.m. in room A210

Grande Prairie had 26 deaths related to apparent fentanyl overdoses last year compared to 10 in 2016, according to a recent report from the province.

by Glory Przekop