Ottawa Inner City Health

05/26/2026

Last week was PSW Day! We want to once again give a huge shoutout to all our incredible CCWs 💙 (and a special shoutout to Prime and Moji who are pictured). PSWs are essential frontline workers and such a big part of our organization!

05/25/2026

Over the past year, documentarian and filmmaker Patrick Kabeya has been speaking with community members to better understand the experiences of people navigating substance use during the ongoing toxic drug crisis. In this clip, one participant reflects on how substance use challenges can affect anyone, sharing that this was never something he imagined or expected for himself. He speaks to the importance of services like the CTS, which allow people to use more safely and are essential to his wellbeing. As the CTS faces funding loss and closure, stories like this highlight why these services matter. We are grateful to everyone who participated in this project and look forward to sharing more.

05/23/2026

Some members of our nursing team enjoyed a Creating with Clay workshop led by Soul Space Ottawa as part of Nursing Week. It was a pleasure to offer this time for reconnection, creativity, and a well-deserved moment of respite. Check out our team's creations!

05/23/2026

05/21/2026

What happens when CTS sites close?

Here’s what some of the evidence shows 👇

After other site closures across Ontario, communities saw sharp increases in EMS calls and fatal overdoses, putting added pressure on paramedics, emergency rooms, and hospitals. Drug use did not disappear, it was pushed to private residences, public washrooms, and local businesses.
At the same time, people lost access to sterile equipment, harm reduction supports, and trusted care providers.

The result:
�→ Increased strain on EMS and hospital systems�→ Higher risk of infection�→ More overdoses and deaths�→ Less connection to treatment and healthcare

This is what is likely to occur with the closure of the Sandy Hill CTS and The Trailer CTS.

05/19/2026

Happy PSW Day 💙 In partnership with Carefor, we were proud to celebrate our amazing frontline PSWs who work across all our programs! These "survival kits" went out to the units today as a small token of our appreciation!

05/18/2026

It’s World Museum Day! At OICH, we believe in the power of recreation as a valuable tool for recovery, community, and finding meaning. Part of this includes offering activities like visiting museums, which provide educational, engaging, and social opportunities for members of our community.

Enjoy some photos from a recent trip to the Nature Museum!

05/14/2026

A glimpse of some of the gifts and celebrations for Nurses Week! It has been a particularly challenging time for our organization, and we want our nurses to know just how deeply appreciated they are. OICH is proudly nurse-led, and we truly would not be who we are without the passion, dedication, and care of our incredible nursing team. Thank you all so much 💙

05/13/2026

Shepherds of Good Hope can't do what we do without partnerships.

Jen is a mental health nurse working for Ottawa Inner City Health in the Targeted Engagement and Diversion (TED) program which runs out of our shelter on King Edward Avenue.

Every day, Jen, and her team, work outside of the public eye, helping some of the most vulnerable people in our community. They are Hope in Plain Sight.

Working as an emergency room nurse in a large local hospital, Jen always wondered what happened to her patients experiencing homelessness after they were discharged.

Jen soon came to find out that TED is what happens.

Patients who are experiencing mental health and substance use related health problems are brought to TED where trained healthcare professionals like Jen divert these individuals from overcrowded emergency rooms where they can get the support they need, without prejudice.

If you see ambulance or police outside of the shelter, they are probably dropping clients off to a place where they can get the care they need.

“A lot of times, the clients we work with have had bad experiences with the healthcare system,” says Jennifer. “A lot of my job is to break those barriers and be there when they need me.”

“They are somebody’s son, daughter, somebody’s friend, and, though it may not look like it from the outside, they are recovering and change is happening.”

Jen is Care in Plain Sight.

05/12/2026

Last Friday, we held a recognition event for the Ontario Trillium Foundation, featuring a photo voice project that captured life through the eyes of our community members. With the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Ottawa Inner City Health is continuing to create low-barrier, entry-level employment opportunities for people with lived experience of homelessness, mental health challenges, and substance use. These roles are more than jobs. They are opportunities for skill development, training, confidence building, leadership, and long-term career growth within the social service sector.

By investing in peers, we are investing in stronger communities, more compassionate services, and futures built on dignity, purpose, and possibility.

A heartfelt thank you to the Ontario Trillium Foundation, our community partners, and especially the peers whose leadership and resilience continue to inspire this work every day!

05/11/2026

Join us in celebrating National Nursing Week and recognizing some of the incredible people behind the care we provide every day. Inspired by the "this is who..." trend, we thought it would be fun to share a few childhood photos of some of our nurses this week as a fun way to showcase some of the people behind the amazing work we do!! At OICH, we are proudly nursing-led because we know that the work we do is not possible without them and we see every day how much nurses give to this work and to our community. Our nurses are not only skilled health care professionals, they are advocates, supporters, problem solvers, and trusted people our clients rely on. They bring compassion, patience, creativity, and care into everything they do. It has been a very difficult and unprecedented time, but our nurses have continued to show up for our clients and for each other. They have continued to lead with kindness, patience, resilience and to support our people through an incredibly hard period with strength and leadership. To our Registered Nurses, Registered Practical Nurses, and Nurse Practitioners, we want to extend a huge thank you. We are deeply grateful for the care, commitment, and heart you bring to this work every single day. Without nurses, we would simply not be OICH.