This webinar is presented by the Substance Use Health Network (SUHN) as part of their Research Spotlight series.
# MySafe Final Evaluation Report: Impacts of Program Closure
Join us for a critical and timely conversation on the independent evaluation of the MySafe biometric medication dispensing program - and what its closure reveals about the current direction of drug policy in Canada.
At its core, this is not just a story about one program. It raises urgent questions about what it means to pilot high-impact interventions for populations at extreme risk - and then withdraw them without continuity, safeguards, or accountability. As harm reduction services are scaled back or shut down across jurisdictions, the findings point to a growing gap between evidence, ethics, and policy.
# In this webinar, we will:
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Share key findings from the evaluation
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Examine the real-world impacts of program withdrawal on people’s lives
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Situate MySafe within a broader landscape of shifting drug policy and restricted access to prescribed alternatives
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Interrogate the ethical implications of short-term pilots without continuity-of-care protections
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Discuss what accountability, responsibility, and evidence-informed policy should look like moving forward
For healthcare and social service providers, researchers, policy-makers, and people with lived and living experience, this session offers space to grapple with a difficult but necessary question: what do we owe people when we introduce - and then remove - interventions that shape their survival?
# About MySafe
MySafe was a low-barrier, person-centred model that provided secure, flexible access to prescribed alternatives through biometric dispensing machines, paired with wraparound supports. Participants described improved stability, autonomy, and engagement in care. In 2024, the program was abruptly defunded amid shifting political and regulatory pressures on prescribed alternatives, leaving many people without safe, reliable access to care.
This evaluation, based on in-depth interviews with former clients and service providers, documents not only what worked but what happened when it was taken away. Participants describe rapid destabilization, loss of autonomy, and forced transitions into more restrictive or inaccessible systems of care. These are not abstract policy shifts; they are decisions with immediate, material consequences for people’s health, safety, and survival.
# Speakers
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Tara Taylor, SpenceCreo Founation
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Isabelle Boisvert, Changemark
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Kaitlin Calligiari, Changemark