PI: Yasser Ismail (Casey House)
Project Team: Casey Schapel (Casey House), Alessandro Bisignano (Casey House)
Casey House is a hospital in Toronto serving people who are living with and at risk of HIV/AIDS. The hospital specializes in holistic and patient-centred care that is grounded in the social and structural determinants of health, and provides inpatient and outpatient services, harm reduction, and social support, particularly for those who are facing complex traumas and systemic barriers to safe living. In 2022, Casey House became the third hospital in Canada to offer an on-site Supervised Consumption Service (SCS), and the first in Ontario to offer indoor supervised inhalation.
The current project aims to develop a client advisory body of people who inhale drugs to generate knowledge and determine best practices for supporting individuals using a Sanctioned Inhalation Site within a hospital setting. Over the course of one year, the client advisory group will participate in monthly engagement sessions, consisting of five participants each, to provide feedback on their experiences with using the Casey House SCS. The input gathered from the project will be used to expand Peer involvement and strengthen the internal capacity of the Casey House harm reduction program. This knowledge will also be shared province-wide to inform and promote the development of Sanctioned Inhalation Sites in hospital settings, as well as other client-driven wraparound services.