Tonight’s guest is Shaya Dhinsa. She is the manager of the Sexual Health Program at the Middlesex London Health Unit. She stated from the start that the goal of her Unit is to CHOOSE HEALTH. They serve some 45,000 people. The program is aimed at infectious disease control, inspections, and health promotion. The crises is real and frightening: overdose deaths, HIV epidemic, Endocarditis, litter (needles), public drug use. Appropriate measures are being taken at a cost of $210 million.
 
A supervised consumption facility is going to be available soon. It is a clean place with an available nurse and  a chill room for use after supervised drug consumption.  
Other initiatives being taken: community drug and alcohol strategies, harm reduction pillar, opioid crisis working groups and supervised consumption.  

The unit is aware of the dire situation of the indiginous population which has continued gone through sucessive generations of suffering.

Shaya mentioned other major gaps: poverty, at-risk youth, medical detox and residential rehabilitation. A period of question and answers

provided additional information and more detail.