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Community of Inquiry categories (Kinsman, 2023)

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Example of a student's set of superpowers for the activity

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Example of a student's set of superpowers for the activity

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https://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en/athena-figurine

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Explanation of the Tragedy of the Commons

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Explanation of the Tragedy of the Commons

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What is the tragedy of the commons? - Nicholas Amendolare

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Source: Washington State University. (2010). Experiential Learning 5 Step Cycle. Washington State University. https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/2058/2014/08/Experiential-Learning-5-Step-Learning-Cycle.pdf

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Assassin's Creed Discovery Tour: The Akropolis of Athens | Ep. 1 | Ubisoft [NA]

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The living, breathing world of the Discovery Tour

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The living, breathing world of the Discovery Tour

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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that the North Richmond safe injecting room is set to become permanent with legislation to be introduced on Tuesday.

"What the review shows us is that there's been more than 6,000 overdose events within that injecting facility," he said during a media conference on Tuesday.

"The modelling indicates that 63 deaths have been prevented because of the work of the North Richmond supervising injecting facility.

"This is changing lives and saving lives."

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'Changing lives and saving lives': North Richmond injecting room set to become permanent

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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that the North Richmond safe injecting room is set to become permanent with legislation to be introduced on Tuesday. "What the review shows us is that there's been more than 6,000 overdose events within that injecting facility," he said during a media conference on Tuesday.

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The return to regular trading in Melbourne's CBD has coincided with a spike in heroin-related overdoses, with drug experts warning that stalling the city's second safe-injecting room is putting lives at risk.

Former police commissioner Ken Lay is still finalising a report, which was meant to be handed down in 2020, that will recommend the best site for the second safe-injecting room - believed to be the former Yooralla building on Flinders Street.

The delay is putting pressure on community health professionals, who have noted an increase in overdoses and people needing immediate support for drug-and-alcohol-related health issues.

Data from Cohealth, a community health organisation and provider of choice for the second safe-injecting room, shows their City Street Health team has recorded a steady increase in the number of clients accessing the service in the past 12 months. The team has reported four overdoses in the past four months, compared with three in the previous nine months.

Greg Denham, the community partnerships facilitator at Cohealth, said that in 2022 the program engaged with more than 1,428 people in the CBD, 75% of whom were homeless.

"Since the beginning of this year we've seen a steady increase [in] numbers of people we're dealing with," Denham said.

"We're now in a position in the middle of January, where we're already above what we were in December for the whole month. We're pushing, at the current rate, 300 to 350 people this month"

Data from Ambulance Victoria shows the number of callouts for heroin-related issues in the CBD jumped to 400 in 2021. In the same period, 300 callouts were made to the city of Yarra, where a safe-injecting room is operating.

Added to this is data from Youth Projects, which runs several drug safety services, revealing its teams have responded to 10 overdoses in the CBD in the past six months.

Denham said the spike was being driven by people returning to the CBD.

"The service users are reflective of the general push to get more people in the city," he said. "You can't separate the two."

The state government has yet to confirm the location of the second safe-injecting room, which has become a contentious issue, with the previous Melbourne city council voting against a proposed site near the Queen Victoria Market in 2020.

Last year seven of the 11 councillors backed an "evidence-based" approach to the issue, with the lord mayor, Sally Capp, renewing her support for a safe-injecting room in the CBD.

Kit, a Cohealth outreach worker with lived experience, said overdose statistics alone were not useful for measuring the impact of a safe-injecting room, which would offer wraparound healthcare.

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"The overdoses are just the tip of the iceberg," Kit said. "The complications or risks are higher when you're not in a safe place."

Richie Goonan, the operations manager of community health at Youth Projects, said his team handed out 1m clean injecting kits last year in the CBD and had managed 10 overdoses in the past six months.

"We also have an outreach nursing service we run 7pm each night Wednesday to Sunday and they are seeing a lot of drug use around the CBD compared to 12 months ago," Goonan said.

Goonan said the safe-injecting room was needed, not just to save lives but to offer healthcare in a non-judgmental setting.

"While [saving lives] has to be the No 1 ticket item, it is also about the dignity we're providing drug users [so that] they're not forced to go down back alleys," he said.

The current injecting room in Richmond has faced backlash from parts of the community, but a spokesperson for the service said it had managed more than 6,000 overdoses onsite and saved at least 44 lives over the past five years.

"The service has taken pressure off local hospitals, reduced ambulance callouts, led to a decrease in public injecting and removed barriers to critical health and social supports for people in our community who need them," the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said the pandemic has significantly changed aspects of the CBD, including population, foot traffic, drug harm, the types of drugs people buy, where they consume them, and homelessness patterns.

"A second supervised injecting service will save lives and change lives however, no decision has been made regarding the final location for the Melbourne Supervised Injecting Service," the spokesperson said.

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Melbourne's injecting room delay puts lives at risk as heroin overdoses spike in CBD

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The return to regular trading in Melbourne's CBD has coincided with a spike in heroin-related overdoses, with drug experts warning that stalling the city's second safe-injecting room is putting lives at risk.

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Victoria’s safe injecting room to become permanent, with another on the way

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Victoria’s controversial medically supervised injecting room in North Richmond is set to become a permanent…

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Victoria's controversial North Richmond supervised-injecting room has saved dozens of lives and will be made permanent, Premier Daniel Andrews has announced.

The North Richmond supervised-injecting room will become permanent after a five-year trial

The opposition says it wants to see a different approach to helping people quit addictive drugs

A report on a second facility proposed for Melbourne's CBD is due mid-year

Mr Andrews revealed this morning that an independent review of the facility had recommended it move beyond the trial phase, and that legislation would be introduced to ensure this.

Mr Andrews said more than 6,000 overdoses had been treated at the facility since it opened in 2018, and 63 deaths had been prevented.

At the centre, users can safely inject drugs and access other services, such as mental health support, drug treatment, wound care and blood testing.

"Whilst there are still challenges - and the report speaks to safety as well as amenity and making further improvements, further wrap-around services - it is very clear that this facility has changed lives and saved lives," Mr Andrews said.

"Stories of people dying in laneways and gutters, stories of, literally, dead bodies throughout that local community meant that we needed to do something different, something challenging."

Former police commissioner Ken Lay is carrying out a report into a proposed second injecting room in Melbourne's CBD. That report is due mid-year.

Mr Andrews said the government had accepted all of the North Richmond facility review's recommendations except one, which proposed allowing peer or partner injecting, and removing barriers to people who are on court orders and to pregnant women.

Mr Andrews also acknowledged that some local residents remained opposed to the facility and pledged to address their concerns about safety and other impacts on the local community.

Littered needles 'remain a challenge', report says

The report, authored by public health researcher John Ryan, noted some local residents strongly opposed the location of the facility, saying they feel unsafe because of the behaviour of drug users attracted by the injecting room.

"The Panel finds that trialling an [injecting room] has not overcome the broader amenity challenges created by a pre-existing drug market," the report said.

"While there have been fewer overdoses requiring ambulance attendance in the area, public injecting and inappropriate discarding of needles and syringes remain a challenge.

"One resident commented that since the [facility] opened 'I haven't had anyone knock on the door to ask if I'm okay or acknowledge that it must be tough'."

Local resident Judy Ryan, who led the campaign for the establishment of the facility, welcomed the government's decision.

Richmond resident Judy Ryan led the campaign for the safe-injecting room.(Supplied )

"As a resident of that area, it was commonplace to come home from shopping and find human beings slumped in laneways, in carports, in gardens. In 2016, 34 people lost their lives in the local government area of Yarra," Ms Ryan said.

"Finding human beings slumped is one thing, there was also the constant presence of emergency sirens. It was like living in a war zone. It was stressful, it was unacceptable."

However, resident Christine Maynard criticised the decision to make the facility permanent, saying children in the area were being exposed to traumatic and distressing situations.

"No child should be exposed to what these kids go through every day of their lives walking to and from school," she said.

"Why is it appropriate for a little preppy or a young child to see a dead body under a sheet walking to school at 8.30 in the morning?"

Ms Maynard is opposed to the injecting room being in her area.(ABC News: Crystalyn Brown )

Ms Maynard said the views of nearby residents had been ignored by the government.

"As a resident of 27 years and a parent, I find it absolutely disgusting that this has been allowed to happen. We were promised so many things when this place opened, then the trial was extended and nothing has changed, in actual fact it's got worse," she said.

"We continue to see dead bodies in our streets, we continue to see public injecting, we continue to see violence. It's not going to change."

The chief executive of the Victorian Healthcare Association, Leigh Clarke, welcomed the government's decision, describing it as "sensible and evidence-based".

"The government's decision highlights the tremendous work of the North Richmond Community Health service team who care for all members of their local community, including people at their most vulnerable," Ms Clarke said.

"Running a medically supervised injecting room can be challenging work, but our community health services never shy away from what needs to be done to save lives and deliver healthcare in all its forms."

Opposition calls for clarity on CBD location

Opposition Leader John Pesutto said the government had not considered the objections of local residents about the location of the facility next to a primary school.

He said the government's treatment model was also ineffective.

"We would prefer an approach which is different from the government's in that it's evidence-based and it's designed to transition people off addictive substances," Mr Pesutto said.

Shadow Mental Health Minister Emma Kealy called on the government to address concerns from traders, residents and emergency services about the location of a second injecting room in the CBD, which has been proposed for a site near the popular Degraves Street precinct.

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Victoria's controversial safe-injecting room here to stay after review finds dozens of lives saved

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Victoria's controversial North Richmond supervised-injecting room has saved dozens of lives and will be made permanent, Premier Daniel Andrews has announced.

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Melbourne drug-injecting facility to become permanent

North Richmond locals furious at its location near school

Recent public health report showed it has saved 63 lives

A drug-injecting facility will continue to operate indefinitely after a controversial trial was deemed a huge success despite parents from a nearby school still furious about its location.

The Andrews government opened the supervised injecting room at North Richmond, in Melbourne's east, in June 2018 as part of a two-year trial, which was extended until mid-2023.

Legislation will be introduced to state parliament on Tuesday for the facility to become a permanent service after a review, chaired by public health researcher John Ryan, found it managed almost 6000 overdoses and saved 63 lives.

There have been 50 heroin-related deaths in the local council area in the 42 months since the facility opened, down from 68 deaths during the preceding 42 months.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the facility, which has recorded 350,000 visits between June 2018 and September 2022, had changed and saved lives.

'We're not chasing a popular outcome here,' he said.

'I will never forget the day we announced this trial. There was a woman overdosed not 50m from the press conference.'

The government will consider all 10 recommendations from the review, including expanding support for users and addressing safety and amenities.

But it has ruled out enacting a suggestion to expand eligibility to peer and partner injecting, allowing pregnant women to inject, and remove other barriers including to people on court orders.

The centre has become a contentious issue for residents, as acknowledged by the 25-page review.

Some people told the panel the area was quieter with no 'constant code blues, dead bodies on the asphalt and kids watching injecting,' but others said drug use remains highly visible.

'I walk my daughter to school, witness fights, brazen drug deals, drug use, drug-affected people,' one community member said.

Judy Ryan, who led a residents' campaign to establish the injecting room, said it was common to find drug-affected people in laneways, carports and gardens before the centre opened.

'It was like living in a war zone. It was stressful and unacceptable,' she said.

She acknowledged some residents would be displeased the facility would remain, but said people needed to understand it wasn't easy to stop using drugs.

Local resident Sharon Neven told Sunrise on Tuesday that locals have had to 'live with the disaster of an ice and heroin injecting room next to the school' for years and they didn't want to see the site become permanent.

'Schoolchildren are seeing dead bodies, seeing people openly inject, people that are naked and running off that are practically insane after years and years of drug use,' Ms Neven said.

'Most people don't want to sit in a clinical room with people watching them inject so they go in and get the needles and paraphernalia and the shoot up in our streets and our parks and on our driveways.

'When there is a dead body on the way to school, how do you call it safe to go to school, how do you call it safe to have an ice and heroin injecting room next to a primary school?'

Ms Neven said she was not against the room said they 'should not be side-by-side'.

She added: 'Why are drug users the only ones that matter here?'

A second facility has been earmarked for Melbourne's CBD, with the government awaiting a final report on the location.

Mr Andrews confirmed the report, led by former police commissioner Ken Lay, would be handed to the government by the middle of the year.

But he said no location for a second site would be perfect.

'You've got to find a location that works and that's a real challenge,' he said.

The Greens have welcomed the move to make North Richmond permanent but criticised the government for not following through on the recommendation to expand eligibility.

'We'd like to see everyone who uses injecting drugs supported with the kind of safety and services that the medically-supervised injecting room provides,' Richmond MP Gabrielle de Vietri said.

The North Richmond site, which is close to a primary school, will remain the same but the provider of the service could change as part of a tender process.

Opposition mental health spokeswoman Emma Kealy said the government had failed to listen to the concerns of residents.

'Kids should never have to walk to school and walk past a dead body, or somebody who's just injected, or see sex acts on their school grounds' she said.

In December, a man was found dead of a suspected drug overdose just metres from the 'safe' injecting centre sparking community outrage.

While in October, paramedics were called to resuscitate a man believed to be overdosing on heroin at a multi-level car park near the injecting room, which locals have dubbed a drug den.

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Drug injecting room divides the community

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Melbourne drug-injecting facility to become permanent North Richmond locals furious at its location near school Recent public health report showed it has saved 63 lives A drug-injecting facility will continue to operate indefinitely after a controversial trial was deemed a huge success despite parents from a nearby school still furious about its location.