Courtesy Ensemble Moncton
Ensemble Moncton now has an interactive dispensing machine outside its downtown location at Weldon and Gordon Streets offering harm reduction items for its clients.
The charitable non-profit organization says the resources are free and the machine includes masks, sanitizer, hygiene products, naloxone kits, needles, syringes and condoms.
Executive director Debby Warren says these items are already being given to their clients and will now be available 24-7.
‘Some people will say that is not the answer to the addictions issue and I will tell them it’s not the answer… I would agree with them. But in the meantime we have to reduce the harm and support the folks who often don’t have equitable access to health care,” notes Warren.
Warren says the machine has small quantities of each item because they still want to have one-to-one contact with their clients.
The first of its kind in Atlantic Canada, Warren says she learned about the machine at a conference in Ottawa last year.
Ensemble Moncton was able to secure funding for the machine thanks to federal COVID emergency funding for charities which was administered through the United Way of Greater Moncton.
Warren says a second interactive dispensing machine is coming soon and she adds it will be set up in a still-to-be-announced rural location outside Moncton.
