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Medically supervised injecting room essential to addressing drug-related harms

Commenting in her finding into the death of 35-year-old Yara Mignon, Coroner Audrey Jamieson has said that the Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR) in Richmond is an essential intervention to address drug-related harms in the City of Yarra and Victoria.

Coroner Jamieson found that Mr Mignon’s death in November 2018 was the unintentional consequence of his use of illicit drugs. Mr Mignon was found unconscious in a restaurant bathroom on Victoria Street Richmond, and subsequently died seven days later in St Vincent’s Hospital.

During the coronial investigation, Coroner Jamieson requested the Coroners Prevention Unit (CPU) examine Victorian heroin-involved overdose deaths, with a particular focus on deaths in the City of Yarra. The CPU report showed:

  1. In 2018, following six years of steady increases, the frequency of Victorian heroin-involved overdose deaths declined by approximately 10%, from 220 to 201 deaths.
  2. In contrast to this general decline, the frequency of heroin-involved overdose deaths in the City of Yarra increased from 16 (2017) to 25 (2018).
  3. The number of heroin-involved overdose deaths in the six months after the MSIR trial commenced (12 deaths) was practically the same as in the six months leading up to the trial (13 deaths).

In her finding, Coroner Jamieson commented that while the data suggests that the level of heroin-involved overdose deaths in the City of Yarra during 2018 reflected a continuation of the longer-term well-established trend in the area, six months is not long enough to judge the effect of the MSIR on heroin-related harms in the City of Yarra.

Coroner Jamieson said the MSIR has created valuable opportunities for clinicians to engage with a vulnerable group of people and link them with medical treatment and social services and other supports they may otherwise not have accessed. The Coroner further suggested that it may be timely to review what else might be needed to ensure that the benefits of the MSIR for the City of Yarra community are fully realised.

A copy of the finding can be found at: https://www.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-06/YaraMignonSturak_565618_2.pdf

 

Media contact:

Jenni Coady
0419 655 071
mediaenquiries@courts.vic.gov.au