Wednesday, 6 March 2024

Melbourne medically supervised injecting facility

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:16): (759) My adjournment tonight is to the Minister for Mental Health, and the action that I seek is that a medically supervised injecting centre be opened in the City of Melbourne as soon as possible. A community member, Katrina, wrote to me recently, and with her permission I would like to share part of her email.

My name is Katrina, my son Danial Korver died in Melbourne’s Rainbow Alley on Saturday the 11of June 2022 from an accidental Heroin overdose.

Two weeks ago my husband John and I visited Rainbow Alley on Danial’s birthday, the 8th of February, he should have been 40 this year.

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We would visit Rainbow Alley, Danial’s home in Glenroy, his favourite coffee shop and then have lunch where we had celebrated his 38th birthday together two years ago.

We arrived in Rainbow Alley and headed towards the step where Danial died, as we approached, we noticed that someone had left some beautiful carnations carefully wrapped with a pink bow and a bottle of Heineken beer – tucked away within the … wrapping was a small envelope, inside the envelope was an elegantly written poem by William Blake “Holy Thursday”, and a small bud of marijuana, we felt overwhelmed, we weren’t alone in our grief, eighteen months later his friends still miss him and think of him.

We then travelled the well-worn path to Danial’s house, hoping to feel his presence and reminisce our last past birthday journey with him, as we walked up his driveway his neighbour came running out waving a sheet of paper, carefully protected in a hard plastic sleeve, inside the plastic sleeve was a Certificate 111 Business certificate that Danial had completed and passed dated the 9th of June 2022, two days prior to his death. Confirmation for us that he had been trying to get back on his feet and restart his business, we felt proud of our beautiful boy, despite all his challenges he had been making progress.

This is what families do with their grief, always there, forever present, just a word, a moment can bring tears, hollowness, sadness and despair for the young life lost too soon, along with that comes guilt, guilt that we should have, could have done more to protect our boy.

Every month two families lose a son or daughter in Melbourne’s CBD, while they may be statistics to some, they are loved by their families. Danial was a father, son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend to many, he should not have died on that day, we miss him so much.

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I have grandchildren I worry about. Danial was a beautiful boy, no one would have ever thought he would end up with an addiction and dependency on heroin, it could be anyone’s child or grandchild next.