- Hi everybody, I'm here at Insite,
and this is Darwin, he's the Floor Manager?
- Yes, Sir.
- And you've been here for how long?
- Long time, 10 years,
we've been open 11 years,
I started a year after it opened.
- Oh my gosh.
Insite is one of my favorite places.
This is my second time here,
but the first time that I'm doing an interview
actually in Insite.
The injection booths are right behind this window.
If you don't know what Insite is,
probably the term is harm reduction model
supervised injection facility.
I personally, after spending the last hour or two with you,
think it's much more relational.
I think it's far,
it's not about getting somebody through the system.
It's more of like being present
with somebody where they're at.
- That's absolutely it.
- Did I get it?
- You get it, you get it.
It's meant to be a community service,
community space, with some clinical services embedded.
It's all about relationships,
and one of the biggest things about the site
is this group of people actually,
they get to come indoors. - Yeah.
- They don't have to change to come indoors, right.
And they get seen. - Yeah.
- They get seen, not just by our medical system,
but they get seen and attended to
at a space that's safe,
that they can call their own. - Right.
- And that they can be in. - Right.
- And we're not gonna put like,
there's certain broad ground rules
that people agree to and that's cool,
but other than that,
it's like we don't wanna put too many
restrictions on folks. - Right.
Be who you are in here. - Right.
- And let's just get to know people, you know?
- Right.
- And everything comes from there.
- One of the things, he was just giving a tour
and he was talking about, you know,
different protocols
and obviously you have protocols
for when somebody overdoses,
or somebody has a heart condition...
- Seizure.
But, when somebody comes in with a dog.
- Yeah, somebody comes in with a big Pit bull,
that's their boon companion, 'cause they're homeless.
You can't expect them to tie it up outside.
You can't expect them to put their shopping cart
with everything that they have on this earth outside,
and leave it out there. - Yeah.
- And so you don't want a bunch of dumb protocols
around that stuff. - Yeah.
- It's just dumb people. - Right, yeah.
- So scratch the protocols
and have a bunch of people who want to be there, right?
- What do we do, homeless person with dog, you know.
- Exactly so the subsection... - Who do we call.
- Get some people who want to be there
and who like the people that they're working with
and get them to make an intelligent decision
between their heart and their head
and make it work and discuss shit,
and just make it work. - Yeah.
- And you do that, right?
About a variety of situations,
whether that's dogs
or people who are under tons of stress,
and really angry and trying to
just chill that out,
and you just make your decisions that way.
- Yeah.
So, you know, just so many amazing
things about Insite.
Another one that I learned today,
was that you really have three levels of staff,
even though you're all kind of equal.
- We've got one level of staff.
- Right. - It's flat,
but we got three different kinds of staff.
- Right, right. - So we got nurses here.
You're having an overdose,
that nurse takes the lead,
and we've got non clinical staff.
(phone ringing) which I'm one,
I don't have a nursing degree.
Shut up phone.
But we will assist in those cases,
and the non clinical staff are managing flow,
we're building relationships, doing referrals.
Nurses can do it for us too.
But the most important group
are the drug users themselves
that work in the post-injection room.
Insite is in their community, right,
and this is their space,
and they work here with such enormous commitment.
It's unreal.
So I can get a nurse and a non clinical staff
and a peer in the same room,
and we won't tell you which is which
and you won't know
which is which. - I know.
- That's the point.
And what these peers also do
is they mentor drug users from the area
who wanna work in the post-injection room,
which we call, it's a bit dated,
we call it the chill out lounge, right.
But it's not complicated work
but actually getting into the workplace,
getting into the workforce,
having something to do is so important.
That's healthcare, that's addiction treatment.
That's just what people need in life.
So the goal for these Peer Supervisors
is to sort of, bring these folks into the workplace,
and get them used to being a part of something.
What do you get from that?
A good identity,
something that you're connected with,
some structure,
it's therapeutic. - Yeah.
- And so that's just the best thing.
- So you run around crazy.
I don't know where you get the energy
and you put me in the nurses station for a little bit,
and one of the nurses, she said,
"You know if you're gonna stand here,
you might as well work."
- Awesome. - And she says okay,
if they want water, you give them water,
and then, and here's where the pencils are
and here's where the clips,
and here's where the sponges, you know,
and I mean and I almost burst into tears.
I really did because, I mean,
and I'm an ex-drug addict
and the first time I came in here
I didn't really understand what Insite was
and obviously I have a lot more understanding.
And you have people from all walks of life.
I think one of the things that really,
I wish I could take everyone of you here to visit
because one of the first things you'll notice,
it's not your stereotypical drug addicts.
You have people... - Oh man.
- That look like that housewife,
that look like that suit and tie executive.
To, you know, people that are just,
oh my gosh, would be turned away by any medical facility.
And one thing we were talking about earlier
I mean, if you go to a hospital,
there's security guards.
- It's not a hospitable environment for drug users
or homeless people. - Right.
- Or folks with mental illness.
- So you know, there's no other choice
but to go behind that dumpster
or into that alleyway,
and you do the wrong stuff.
You're gonna die.
- But also, it's like standing in a public toilet.
Because the same places people are hiding
it also where people are un-housed
have to void themselves and take care of their functions.
So I couldn't imagine a place
that's less hygienic to try and find a vein.
It doesn't make sense
for people to be using in those situations.
We can do better.
Plus, you get all hidden behind a dumpster
and, oh, I'm ODing, bang, I'm gone.
Now being hidden really really sucks.
- Right. - Right.
- While I was here, one of the staff came in
and said, "Hey we need to be aware of this,
this is coming through, you've had ODs in the past."
If it wasn't for Insite, the people taking these drugs
would die, would die.
- Overdoses kill so many people every year.
This is happening all over North America.
- You know what, I love what you said here.
Nobody dies at insite.
- It's one of the great things about working here.
- Nobody dies at Insite.
- Yep. - You know,
I mean that's just amazing
and I know the faith based community
and a lot of people, you know,
"Oh my gosh, you're giving people drugs."
No, no they're saving lives.
And these are people that might not have any other chance.
I mean it's...
- Yeah, I think there's something deeply Christian
about saving lives.
- Big time.
- And when somebody comes in here
and they've been on their feet
and haven't changed their shoes for two weeks
and you run a little tub of water
and you put some Epsom salts in there,
and they can wash their feet
and get some socks.
That's just a pretty basic, awesome thing,
and who's against that? - Yeah.
- You know.
- I will talk to you guys all
for hours about here.
I wish I could come back
and bring you all here.
Sorry about this funky location.
It's raining outside.
It started getting dark,
we were gonna go in the isle,
or in the alley,
we, you know, you haven't bumped your head.
I'm impressed.
- (laughing and chuckling) Sheer luck.
- Staff here has fun.
This is a hard job.
I mean, oh my gosh,
the gentleman out there in a wheelchair
that I'm seeing right now,
that you helped him with the can.
- Yeah.
- And it just broke my heart.
It broke my heart.
- It's what people struggle with down here
and their burdens are incredibly harsh.
They're incredibly harsh,
and their backgrounds that they've come from
are super harsh.
But often, they don't want you to be all like,
sad faced when you're here. - Right.
- They want to actually share some life.
They want to talk about the things of life.
They wanna joke,
everybody tries to be creative and shit.
It's amazing. - Yeah.
- So, again, bring some life to it, you know.
- And (stumbles on words) Portland Hotel Society,
great that I don't edit these videos.
(Darwin laughing)
Portland Hotel Society, you know,
they have a bank, who would have thought,
a bank and you know,
we were talking about it earlier,
you just gotta listen,
you go to Skid Row, Los Angeles,
you go to all these poverty places.
There's all these check cashing places
that are taking advantage. - Yeah.
- You guys have a bank for people on the street.
- Bank for the hard to bank!
Yeah.
- Right, yeah, that's brilliant.
So, check out Portland Hotel Society.
Please be open minded.
Just be open minded.
I personally, an abstinence based program,
worked for me, and it works for a lot of people.
But as an outreach worker in Los Angeles,
I know people that died,
because they would never go in to an
abstinence based program,
or an abstinence based program
wouldn't allow them in their lobby.
A program like Insite would have changed their lives.
Would have saved their lives.
- There should be more of this sort of program.
Because, because it helps people.
- Thank you everybody.
- Cheers.