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supply distribution

Harm Reduc­tion Sup­ply Dis­tri­b­u­tion
For Ser­vice Providers

In this sec­tion local part­ners in harm reduc­tion sup­ply dis­tri­b­u­tion will find resources and infor­ma­tion relat­ed to the dis­tri­b­u­tion of harm reduc­tion equipment.

  • Access to harm reduc­tion sup­plies helps reduce the risk of trans­mit­ting blood-borne infec­tious, pri­mar­i­ly hepati­tis C and HIV. 
  • Access to harm reduc­tion sup­ply dis­tri­b­u­tion ser­vices that are friend­ly, pos­i­tive, non-judg­men­tal, work­ing to engage peo­ple who use drugs is cen­tral to the suc­cess of this pub­lic health inter­ven­tion with our communities. 
  • Harm reduc­tion sup­ply ser­vices are safe, effec­tive, and cost-sav­ing interventions.
  • HSHR is fund­ed to pro­cure and coor­di­nate the dis­tri­b­u­tion of harm reduc­tion sup­plies for dis­tri­b­u­tion part­ners in Winnipeg. 
  • Access to harm reduc­tion sup­plies is con­tin­gent on HSHR’s fund­ing approved by the Province of Manitoba.
  • All sup­plies dis­trib­uted in Win­nipeg are select­ed based on evi­dence, price, qual­i­ty and avail­abil­i­ty, as well as feed­back from peo­ple who use drugs and in con­sul­ta­tion with ser­vice providers.
  • Harm Reduc­tion Sup­ply Dis­tri­b­u­tion sites are respon­si­ble for the oper­a­tions of their sites and for dis­tri­b­u­tion of sup­plies accord­ing to guide­lines pro­vid­ed by HSHR.

An overview of Harm Reduc­tion Sup­ply Dis­tri­b­u­tion in Winnipeg

HSHR sup­ports harm reduc­tion sup­ply dis­tri­b­u­tion to over 50 orga­ni­za­tions in Win­nipeg. Most of these sup­ply dis­tri­b­u­tion sites have been estab­lished since 2019. In 2023 – 2024, about 1 mil­lion nee­dles were pro­vid­ed to com­mu­ni­ty part­ners. All the sites open to the pub­lic are list­ed in the resource map.

HSHR also sup­ports 12 com­mu­ni­ty patrols in their nee­dle pick-up efforts.

INFO­GRAPH­IC: Win­nipeg Harm Reduc­tion Sup­ply Dis­tri­b­u­tion 2021 – 2022

Access­ing Harm Reduc­tion Supplies

HSHR pro­vides harm reduc­tion sup­plies to harm reduc­tion sup­ply dis­tri­b­u­tion sites in Win­nipeg with whom an agree­ment has been estab­lished. Part­ners in sup­ply dis­tri­b­u­tion are respon­si­ble for:

  • the dis­tri­b­u­tion of free of charge harm reduc­tion supplies
  • the dis­tri­b­u­tion of harm reduc­tion sup­plies as per estab­lished in HSHR Guidelines
  • par­tic­i­pat­ing in a harm reduc­tion sup­ply dis­tri­b­u­tion session 
  • fol­low­ing the order­ing process out­lined in their agreement

Cur­rent­ly, we are paus­ing engage­ment with poten­tial new harm reduc­tion sup­ply dis­tri­b­u­tion sites. 

Those part­ners already onboard, please use this form to order sup­plies. Please be advised that we are start­ing to con­duct a review of our sup­ply dis­tri­b­u­tion pro­gram, as such we will not be chang­ing dis­tri­b­u­tion of sup­plies (such as types or amounts) till we com­plete the review. 

Safe Nee­dle Disposal

Nee­dles are used by com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers for human or ani­mal med­ical con­di­tions such as dia­betes, and sub­stance use. Improp­er­ly dis­card­ed nee­dles in pub­lic spaces are often the result of lack­ing of place or sup­plies to prop­er­ly dis­pose of them. Nee­dles are no inten­tion­al­ly dis­card­ed to hurt oth­ers. Nee­dles are eas­i­ly collected.

HSHR pro­vides sharps con­tain­ers to com­mu­ni­ty groups orga­nized to build safer com­mu­ni­ties (e.g., com­mu­ni­ty patrols, sea­son­al nee­dle clean-ups). These com­mu­ni­ty groups or ini­tia­tives will:

  • access sharps con­tain­ers for nee­dle sweeps
  • receive train­ing in safe nee­dle collection
  • pro­mote safe nee­dle dis­pos­al in the community
  • sup­port a non-stig­ma­tiz­ing under­stand­ing of inap­pro­pri­ate­ly dis­card­ed needles
  • return sharps con­tain­ers with used nee­dles for final safer disposal

If your orga­ni­za­tion is inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about access­ing sharps con­tain­ers for your com­mu­ni­ty ini­tia­tive, please con­tact us or send us your reg­is­tra­tion form to outreach@​wrha.​mb.​ca. Once you have received con­fir­ma­tion of your reg­is­tra­tion and train­ing or ori­en­ta­tion com­plete, please use this form to order supplies.

Com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions, agen­cies or busi­ness­es seek­ing out sharps con­tain­ers for their facil­i­ties, look for biowaste or med­ical waste dis­pos­al ser­vices or con­sult with phar­ma­cies in your area

For a Pub­lic Health Per­spec­tive on Dis­card­ed Needles

Pro­mot­ing your harm reduc­tion services

Sup­ply dis­tri­b­u­tion sites or ser­vices open to the pub­lic will be pro­mot­ed in our inter­ac­tive map. We can also help you pro­mote oth­er ser­vices such as STB­BI test­ing, preg­nan­cy test­ing, free con­doms, and HIV Pre­ven­tion Medication/​PrEP.

If you are inter­est­ed in hav­ing your ser­vices pro­mot­ed in our inter­ac­tive map, please com­plete the fol­low­ing form and email it to outreach@​wrha.​mb.​ca