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One of the city’s busiest health clinics is at risk of gang retaliation after expanding its operations to new neighbourhoods.
Direction 180’s mobile clinic has been helping some of the most vulnerable members of the HRM for the last two years. They’ve been able to increase their service to four different locations around the city, including Fairview and Spryfield. That’s meant faster help for their clients.
“We’ve literally eliminated the wait list for treatment,” executive director Cindy MacIsaac tells the media. Just two years ago there were over 300 people waiting for help, but now? “[Patients] can get treatment within a couple of days of making contact with us.”
That doesn’t impress some aggressive locals, however, who are trying to push the public health service out of their communities through intimidation and threats. The CBC identifies one adult male who’s forming a (petition) mob in opposition to the free health service’s efforts in easing societal suffering.
“We don’t want this,” the man says about the mobile clinic which helps reduce crime and disease in his neighbourhood. “It shouldn’t be here in a residential area.”
Another woman says she will forcibly confine her children rather than let them be exposed to community health care.
“Why should we have to keep the kids inside during that time of day just because they’ve chosen a corner of a commercial parking lot to rent,” she says, making a lot of really smart, well-argued points.
MacIsaac says she realizes not everyone likes the clinic, but has no plans to stop helping others for free. In fact, undaunted by the menacing behaviour of her neighbours, MacIsaac plans to expand the service to help even more area residents.
Direction 180 has been serving the Halifax community for over 13 years. The non-profit endeavours to improve their clients’ mental and physical health through medicine, counselling and advocacy. They provide a welcoming, non-judgemental atmosphere, unlike some jerks.
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This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2014.
People scrabbling for a chance at a decent life don’t want their children or property menaced by junkies. Imagine that? Thank God we have people like Whackoff Loon telling the law abiding people of marginal neighborhoods to “check their privilege” in the most condescending way possible.
I guess its better to ignore the problem and just pretend it doesn’t exist. Its alright to have these undesirable types around, we just have to make sure they don’t gather in large numbers. If they do people may realize that they do in fact exist and will have to accept that there is a problem. These clinics open up where there is a need for them to, they don’t create the problem- its already there.
That being said I wouldn’t want a clinic to open on my street. However, I don’t live in low income areas that are problematic already.
One good thing about the Direction 180 bus being parked on your street is you get to identify all the junkies that live in your ‘hood as they line up for their fix.
I guess medical privacy is lower on the scale for junkies.
some people’s attitudes are profanely disgusting.
and yeah, ivan, check your privilege. seriously. stop stigmatizing the people that live in your neighborhood, they have it hard enough already.
I can certainly understand Whackoff Loon’s confusion. The NIMBY response is most easy to ridicule with Hipster Prog-Smug when it comes from the well off, rather than the 99 percenters who live in sketchy neighborhoods. And there’s just something so touching about believing that a food truck approach to addiction issues will work where other traditional methods have failed. Junkies need money to feed their habit; usually other people’s money. And they tend not to be the creme de la creme of society, so having them crawl out of their burrows into the light of day can be unsettling to those who have not yet been conditioned to view them as passive victims of outlaw hypercapitalism, rather than participants in criminality.
You know what cures addiction? – Dirty needles and uncut heroin.
The people the bus serves are people who live in that community already and have made the choice to access treatment. Rather than placing judgment, further stigmatization, calling them “junkies” perhaps our time would be better spent supporting Direction 180 in meeting people where they are at, eliminating treatment access barriers, reducing disease transmission and saving lives. How is that for “well argued” Jacob.
Not sure what the point of this article is since it just re-hashes everything from the CBC article, but with more demonization and fear-mongering. There’s no danger pointed out in the link and incredibly inflammatory language is used in this piece.
Direction180 however is a great service. People sticking their head in the sands about the problems isn’t going to solve anything, whereas helping addicts recover actually will.
“forming a mob in opposition” Gee that sounds like what the Coast’s favorite activist group the Ecology Actrion Center does.
Holy fuck, just stumbled upon this. A new low for The Coast’s journalism.
Gang? Mob? Recycling CBC? Coast, you officially suck more than Metro, now. Good job. No wonder Tim got the fuck out.
At least it’s free, I guess.