City of Hamilton

Published purpose

The goal of this project is to reduce risk of drug poisoning and related harms among underhoused people who use drugs following an urgent healthcare interaction. It will provide targeted harm reduction outreach and service coordination by hiring a harm reduction outreach team (Project Manager, Peer Workers, Harm Reduction Workers) to increase local capacity to provide dedicated support to individuals who use drugs experiencing homelessness. It will also facilitate the hiring of a dedicated coordinator role who will define and map clear service pathways by improving communication between hospital discharge staff, paramedics, and the outreach team; organizing the dispatch and scheduling of outreach workers; collaborating with partners to map harm reduction services; integrating tracking tools and software to streamline coordination; and actively promoting the service among community partners.