For some people in Merritt who use drugs, the friendly faces of volunteers with the Merritt Helping Hands Society might be the first ones they see on their journey to recovery.
The society has distributed harm reduction supplies including syringes and information on blood-borne diseases since it became incorporated in 2006. Last year, the society handed out 53,900 clean syringes, 43 crack pipe kits and 188 cooker kits in Merritt to reduce the chances of spreading disease.
“It’s all based on prevention,” said Marilyn Tolmie, the society’s co-founder and secretary. “The most important thing is, if that addict decides to become clean and sober, they don’t have to die from a blood-borne disease.”
The society also helped get 54 people vaccinated against hepatitis in 2012. Along with their mandate to distribute harm reduction supplies, the group also helps people seeking shelter, medical advice, counselling and even detox.
“We’ll drive them to Kamloops or Kelowna or Vancouver – wherever they need to be,” she said.
But Tolmie said the Merritt Helping Hands Society is not about holding clients’ hands.
“We provide this service 24 hours a day, but there are times when we have to say no,” Tolmie said. “We’ve had people call us to give them a ride across town so they could pick up a ‘coat.’ We know that’s probably a drug house and they want us to give them a ride. The coat’s not there. Meanwhile, they’ve got dope in their pocket.”
The idea for the society formed about a decade ago when the Public Health office, which formerly distributed the safe injection supplies, moved from the downtown core the health centre on the hill. The organization approached Tolmie and her husband Dan to take on the task of establishing a society to continue distributing the supplies in the downtown core.
“We were afraid of what kind of diseases were going to be transmitted with the loss of that service in the downtown core of Merritt,” Tolmie said.
The Tolmies were going through their own recovery at the time, and became an example of the kind of changes people can make in their lives.
“For some of [our clients], I think it gives them hope. I think they’re happy for us and that we’ve come to this place, and I know they’re grateful to us. When I say to a person, ‘I know how you feel,’ they know that I do know how they felt,” Tolmie said.
The group started by giving out syringes, water, tourniquets and alcohol swabs.
“We didn’t want them sharpening on matchsticks and cleaning their syringes with bleach,” Tolmie said. “We wanted to be able to educate people on one syringe per use.”
Soon after they started, their stock of supplies grew.
“We actually gave them out at first in the back of our red Mazda,” Tolmie said. “Then we got this deal happening where we gave out day-old bread. My little Mazda would be filled with bread.”
The society then got a van, which was left to them by two supporters when they moved to Alberta. That van essentially serves as the society’s mobile office.
“We have all our supplies in our van,” Tolmie said. “We don’t have the budget for an office.”
Today, the society operates with about 10 volunteers. Its stock of harm reduction supplies has grown, as well as its mandate to help people who are addicted to drugs in any way they can.
That includes taking them to medical appointments, detox, and even grocery shopping, on top of the syringes, cooker kits, and crack pipe kits it still distributes.
The crack pipe kits help reduce the chances of spreading blood-borne diseases by providing tubing for the end of the pipe.
“The copper or metal pipes get very hot, and sometimes they burn their lips and they’d leave their skin on the end and they’d have these sores. Then they’d give it to the next person,” Tolmie said.
Tolmie said the crack pipe kit also contains a screen to prevent the drug from dripping into the pipe and burning away, instead of the Brillo that can leave small shards of metal lodged in the backs of people’s throats.
“That was causing all sorts of problems. We wanted to prevent that. We prevent throat disease and infections,” she said.
The society acquired cooker kits to distribute in the last year or so. The cooker kits have citron, which helps break down rocks of cocaine so that it can be injected.
“They were using vinegar to break it down back to a liquid form so they could draw it up and inject it. Well, vinegar into your veins is very dangerous,” she said.
Tolmie said the group’s volunteers keep tabs on their clients to make sure their basic needs are being met to increase their chances of recovery.
“You lose your skills. You don’t know how to pay rent anymore. You don’t know how to shop for food anymore. Their preference is to buy dope instead of food, or booze instead of paying rent. If we notice they’re really thinning out, we’ll ask when the last time they ate was,” Tolmie said.
Volunteers even take clients grocery shopping and help them pay their bills if they see they need help. The help also extends to disease management.
“If we know they have hepatitis, we’ll leave the most current pamphlets for them,” Tolmie said. “If we see they have sores, we’ll suggest they go get those checked out. It’s about paying attention to them because they’re important.”
If the society’s president, Willie Jokinen, doesn’t hear from clients at least once a week, he makes the rounds to check up on them.
“It’s gotten to a point where our clients are really respectful. I think the latest I’ve been called in the last two years is 11:30 p.m. Usually they’ll wait because they respect us and care for us.”
But Tolmie said one of the biggest rewards of volunteering is intangible.
“These people have families, and funny memories and stories,” Tolmie said.
“They might not be able to be close to their families, but people love them. We care about them. I think addiction is largely shame-based, and we want them to know that we do love them.”
Tolmie said it’s difficult to estimate the number of people they’re helping because they take supplies to drop areas and don’t know how many people access resources from that central location.
It’s impossible to know how many people they’re saving from contracting diseases from shared needles and other drug paraphernalia.
“There may be a branch of however many who come pick up from there because they don’t want to be known,” Tolmie said.
She said it’s reassuring to know that people, even in the thick of their addictions, are passing along information that could help stop the spread of disease to one another.
As uplifting as the success stories can be, knowing the clients on such a personal level also makes the work difficult at times.
Tolmie’s husband died of liver failure in 2011, and she has had to say goodbye to long-term clients whom she grew to know and love.
“I’ve been to funerals for clients,” Tolmie said. “It can be a struggle because you need time to grieve.”
She said the society’s volunteers get together for a coffee in memorial of a client if there was no funeral service held for that client.
“They want to be treated with respect and dignity,” Tolmie said. “They treat us with respect and we treat them with respect. They know that when they reach out for help, we will try to help them to the best of our ability.”
The group gets all of its supplies and most of its funding from Interior Health, and supplements with support from the City of Merritt, the Rotary clubs of Merritt, and anonymous donors.
But as with most non-profit societies, money is constantly tight.
For better or worse, and for richer or poorer, Tolmie said the work the society does comes from the heart.
“We always tell [clients], ‘We’re going to love you until you learn to love yourself,’ and we do,” Tolmie said. “As long as we’re around and as long as there’s money, we will continue what we do.”
