Sunshine is Brimbank’s main hotspot for discarded syringes, but there are no state government-funded needle disposal services.
A welfare worker says demand for a needle syringe program “is growing”, amid reports of people injecting in plain sight of a childcare centre and discarded syringes being found in primary schools and in a baby change room in the 3020 postcode.
Freedom of information data obtained by Star Weekly reveals that Sunshine, St Albans and Deer Park were identified as Brimbank’s injecting hotspots, with at least 72, 62 and 17 syringes collected there respectively since May, 2013.
This data details callouts for Brimbank council workers to pick up discarded syringes.
Star Weekly inspected the data and counted a minimum of 188 syringes found across Brimbank since May 2013, but the exact number was likely far more, with council reports stating there had been “a heap” of syringes collected at Keilor Downs, “needles everywhere” at a Deer Park church, and “numerous” syringes picked up in St Albans.
Reports detail individual callouts but not always how many syringes are picked up at the location.
Syringes collected during the council’s general operation clean-ups are also not always recorded.
A source close to a childcare centre in Cairnlea said staff regularly saw people inject in the centre carpark.
Staff no longer called on the council to collect syringes, and they cleaned up the carpark themselves.
“It’s ridiculous; it would happen at lunchtimes, at two or three in the afternoon,” the source said.
“You wouldn’t have one [syringe] for a few months then you’d get more than one on a day.”
The FOI documents reveal that syringes have also been found on school grounds at St Albans, outside the council’s Keilor offices and at an Australia Post store in St Albans.
And, they say, a child almost stepped on a syringe outside a Deer Park pharmacy.
The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) says its needle and syringe (NSP) services work through agencies, such as pharmacies, providing disposal and collection units.
These prevent thousands of cases of infections among intravenous drug users each year, DHHS says.
There are no NSP services in Sunshine or Cairnlea.
Yarra Drug and Health Forum’s Greg Denham has called for at least one fixed site to be introduced in Sunshine and possibly a mobile program at night and weekends.
Council’s city development director Stuart Menzies welcomed any moves to broaden the NSP program in Brimbank, which operates in some areas, including four units at St Albans.
