The Nsw Government And Medically Supervised Injecting Centre

The NSW government and ‘Medically Supervised (Heroin) Injecting Centre (Kings Cross): 1998-2010 This case study is based on results obtained from the public injecting site in the urban location of Sydney’s Kings Cross between 1998 and 2010. In exposing and analysing the history behind the initiative of the NSW Governments harm minimisation program of ‘Medically Supervised Injecting Centres’ (MSIC). This paper offers a snapshot into the public policy and responses associated with public injecting and metanarrative directions of the program management and evaluation methods that were applied to how this program unfolded. Agenda-setting The NSW Government recognised that a new approach was needed to reach marginalised and long-term injecting†¦show more content†¦There was a great push for a non-judgmental approach that would ‘reduce physical, social and psychological risks to individuals who use drugs and to society as a whole’ (McCann Temenos, 2015, p. 217). Never the less, this was a highly contested set of policy formulation across all levels of governance. Policy actors and institutions Health services for people who inject drugs are subject to ‘considerable community concern and media and political attention’ (MSIC Evaluation Committee, 2003, p. 177). The development of a policy network, in July 1997 involved a multiplicity of actors who played an important role in the policy process. A NSW Parliamentary Joint Select Committee of ‘public and private spheres’ (Dennis, 2013, p. 78) was established to consider the feasibility for a trial of a MSIC. The Committee extensively reviewed the arguments contending for and arguing against proposals for a trial, and a suitable location. Copious submissions and evidence was put forward to the Committee with many advocators endorsing the action commenting that ‘injecting rooms may contribute to the reduction in the number of fatal and non-fatal overdoses by providing access to resuscitation and disseminating information about safer using practices’ (Parliament of New South Wales, 1998, p. 82). For the most part, government law enforcement and health organisations worked in partnership to support the panoply of programs of legally