By Aaron Cordy
SHEPPARTON Library hosted an insightful panel discussion into legalised injecting rooms led by Judy Ryan OAM last Thursday, November 14.
The controversial subject was approached with great insight from Ms Ryan, who in 2016 led the campaign to open the state’s first injecting room in Richmond. After witnessing first-hand the destructiveness overdoses were having on the community.
“I didn’t work in the medical sector, but I’d come home with my shopping, and you’d run into this: three paramedic units waiting. Somebody rang them because somebody had overdosed… I found it increasingly traumatising,” said Ms Ryan.
ABC Radio presenter Nic Healey moderated the evening that featured trauma practitioner and former CEO of The Cottage Maria Hutchison, addiction medicine specialist at Goulburn Valley Health Professor Edward Ogden PSM and Associate Professor Bernadette Ward from Monash University’s Rural Health Office.
The panel discussion was about education, empathy, breaking the stigma around addiction and saving lives. For those in the community who have not witnessed what drug use can do to a family, it is easy to dismiss the human side of this disease that devastates many families worldwide. The injecting rooms in Richmond and Kings Cross have proven to save lives.
“The key thing is people survive. No one’s ever died in one of these facilities. They’re offered wraparound services, including rehab. References to rehab, they get wound care, they get low barrier entry to a lot of medical support, mental health support, just things we take for granted,” said Ms Ryan.
Shepparton has a reputation for Meth and Ice addiction, but according to locally sources, there is a lot more opioid use than we’d like to believe. Cannabis and alcohol cause the most prevalent issues local for addicts, according to Professor Ogden.
“One thing that surprised me when I came to Shepparton, we had more people coming to us wanting help with cannabis withdrawal than any other drug,” said Professor Ogden.
“One thing that struck me in the time I’ve been doing this sort of work is that of the meth users; there is a significant number who don’t use much. They just have a puff, and they’re self-medicating. There is only one public clinic in Australia that treats ADHD and substance abuse; that’s ours.”
The critical point of the night was understanding that addiction is a disease that needs to be talked about in wider circles with openness and empathy. There is no one solution to helping people fight addiction, but the more we look beyond the disease and stigma into the heart of the person battling drug or alcohol use, the more likely we can help someone take the first steps to recovery.
