Sudburian looks back on 33-year career in harm reduction

When Richard Rainville learned his best friend was HIV-positive in the late 1980s it changed the course of his life.

On March 17, 1989, Rainville, of Greater Sudbury, Ont., joined an organization that would later become known as Réseau ACCESS Network. 

With a growing group of staff members and volunteers, Rainville dedicated the next 33 years of his life to harm reduction and supporting people living with HIV, and later, those living with hepatitis C as well. 

According to the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the life expectancy for someone diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s was less than a year.

During those early days, Rainville said his role was to provide comfort and support to HIV-positive people in Sudbury.

"We had folks who were living with HIV or by now may have had AIDS, and so they were coming home to die," he said.

"So my role really was trying to, in some cases, get them reconnected to family. There might have been some kind of separation along the way, usually because of their sexual orientation."

Rainville said it was mainly gay men who were accessing their services when he started his career. Most of his clients were also people who had returned to Sudbury from larger cities, like Toronto and Vancouver.

"Then all of a sudden we're starting to see men and women accessing our services who were part of Sudbury, who had never left Sudbury, and who, you know, through no fault of their own, were now living with HIV or AIDS in the community," he said.

Rainville said they also started to see more clients who were using drugs and contracted HIV through injections. In 2008, Réseau ACCESS Network started to work with individuals who had hepatitis C as well.

Rainville moved his way up the organization, and in early 2022, he retired as Réseau ACCESS Network's executive director.

He said it was the people – both his clients and colleagues – who motivated him to continue his work in harm reduction.

A new chapter

In 2020, Réseau ACCESS Network became co-lead of the City of Greater Sudbury's proposed consumption and treatment services site.

On May 17, Health Canada granted a site a federal exemption so it could open in Sudbury.

The site will provide people with safer drug-use equipment, along with medical care and referrals to other services.

"We know that safe consumption sites save lives. This site is an essential part of our community's plan to  reduce overdose deaths caused by the current opioid crisis," said Sudbury MP Viviane Lapointe in a press release.

"We are responding to a real  and urgent community need." 

Neil Stephen, Réseau ACCESS Network's manager of consumption and treatment services, previously told CBC News they are recruiting health-care professionals to operate the site.

Once they have enough staff, the site will open and operate daily.