Books, internet and Naloxone: In-house nurse supports people in crisis at Edmonton library

Tabatha Plesuk spends her day responding to mental health crises and opioid poisonings, but the nurse isn't based at a hospital or safe-consumption site.

Instead, she works at the Stanley Milner Library, the only branch in downtown Edmonton, which has seen a rising number of overdoses in recent years. Plesuk, who works with Edmonton Public Libraries (EPL) as part of a pilot program under the city's Downtown Vibrancy Strategy, is equipped with Naloxone and works alongside outreach worker Blake Loathes.

"We see, like, everyone and anyone," Plesuk, an overdose prevention and response nurse for Boyle Street Community Services, which supports homeless people in Edmonton, told White Coat, Black Art.

"We see youth — we've had like people as young as 14 years of age to somebody … who's been houseless for 14 years."

While the library isn't designated as a space for people to consume drugs, staff are equipped and trained to respond to overdoses. Plesuk also provides basic health support, like wound care, to people who are facing homelessness.

She began working as a nurse at the library in August 2022. The pilot was developed, in part, to respond to an increase in security incidents and opioid poisonings around the library.

Libraries are responding more frequently to the needs of a broad population because they're known to be a welcoming space. Branches across the country — including in Halifax and Calgary — have brought in support staff and social workers to supplement their standard offerings of books and movies.

"They've become, especially in core areas, sort of the last place people can go to get warm or to use a washroom or to sleep or to feel safe or to get on the net," said Siobhan Stevenson, a University of Toronto professor who researches the expanding role of public libraries. 

"They've become a real Mecca for that."

Plesuk and Loathes do two rounds of the library and surrounding area, seeing between 40 and 60 people each day.

Her backpack is filled with medical and safer sex supplies, clean tools for using drugs — like needles and pipes — and importantly, snacks. Many of the items are donated, but Plesuk buys some with her own money keeping it within $100 a month.

EPL first brought in social workers in 2011 as more people sought refuge at the downtown branch. 

Libraries can offer access to support services in a way that may be stigmatized elsewhere, says Sharon Day, EPL's executive director of customer experience.

"We connect our community to the services and those resources and everything that they need to really live a fully functioning, vibrant, exciting life."