PHO Webinar: Implementing Smoking Rooms in Supervised Consumption Sites: Key lessons

This discussion-centred roundtable will be focused on implementing supervised smoking/inhalation rooms in drug consumption sites. Service providers and people who use drugs have expressed the urgent need to expand existing supervised consumption sites to include smoking/inhalation rooms in response to increasing overdoses related to smoking drugs. The benefits of smoking/inhalation rooms also include increased engagement of people who smoke drugs and the reduction in barriers to consumption services. However, sites that are considering to include smoking/inhalation face a number of questions regarding air quality, employee safety, legislation, funding, implementation, and others.

This roundtable will focus on key lessons community partners across Canada have learned from implementing supervised smoking/inhalation rooms, as well as best practices for day-to-day operations. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions, exchange ideas, and contribute to growing discussions in this area.

Intended audience: Community initiative partners: Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention Chatham - Kent Public Health Unit; Norwest Community Health Centres and partners; Municipal Drug Strategy Coordinators of Ontario; Ontario Network of People who Use Drugs; COMOH Drug/Opioid Poisoning Crisis Work Group

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Identify best practices in implementing smoking/inhalation rooms
• Understand experiences and strategies from local communities working in safer smoking/inhalation
• Analyze ways to adapt strategies for their own communities