Synthetic Opioid key responses
- Mapping evidence-based key responses to synthetic opioids and their implementation strategies
- Field-tested Toolkit with seven implementation guides
Harm reduction service delivery to people who use drugs during a public health emergency: Examples from the COVID-19 pandemic in selected countries
This report presents ten case studies describing the responses of specific organisations and communities who work with people who use drugs and other marginalised groups to the COVID-19 pandemic. The cases are located in Afghanistan, Australia, the Czech Republic, Kenya, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. It provides details as to how changes in service delivery were implemented in response to COVID-19, and why, and presents 30 comprehensive recommendations to service providers.
“Drugs don’t have age limits”: The challenge of setting age restrictions for supervised injection facilities
AIMS: People under age 18 who inject drugs represent a population at risk of health and social harms. Age restrictions at harm reduction programmes often formally exclude this population, but the reason behind such restrictions is lacking in the literature. To help fill this gap, we examine the perspectives of people who use drugs and various other stakeholders regarding whether supervised injection facilities (SIFs) should have age restrictions.
METHODS: Interviews and focus groups were conducted with a total of 95 people who use drugs and 141 other stakeholders (including police, fire and emergency services personnel, other city employees and officials, healthcare providers, residents and business representatives) in two Canadian cities without SIFs.
FINDINGS: We highlight the following thematic areas: mixed opinions regarding specific age restrictions; safety as a priority; different experiences and understandings of youth, agency and drug use; and ideas regarding maturity, “help” and other approaches. We note throughout that a familiar vulnerability–agency dichotomy often surfaced in the discussions.
CONCLUSIONS: This paper contributes new empirical insights regarding youth access to SIFs. We offer considerations that may inform discussions occurring in other jurisdictions debating SIF implementation and may help remove or clarify age-related policies for harm reduction programmes.
BeTrAD: Better Treatment of Aging Drug Users: Best Practice Collection
Through desktop research and stakeholder analysis, potential examples of good practice wereidentifeid within the fields of addiction, health and mental health care
Better Treatment of Aging Drug Users: Tool Box
The toolbox provides tools and guidance to develop, implement and improve services for aging drug users. These tools are aimed at social service providers, agencies that train professionals, policy-makers and higher education institution
BeTrAD: Better Treatment of Aging Drug Users: National Report Netherlands
This report contributes towards a better understanding of the needs of the aging druguser population and to provide those professionals involved in their care with spefic information and tools with which toimprove the existing services or stimulante new one.
Clinical guideline for homeless and vulnerably housed people, and people with lived homelessness experience
Homeless and vulnerably housed populations are heterogeneous and continue to grow in numbers in urban and rural settings as forces of urbanization collide with gentrification and austerity policies. Collectively, they face dangerous living conditions and marginalization within health care systems. However, providers can improve the health of people who are homeless or vulnerably housed, most powerfully by following evidence-based initial steps, and working with communities and adopting anti-oppressive practices.
Opioid Substitution Treatment in Prison
The main goal of the course is to broaden knowledge about substitution therapy in such specific conditions as penitentiary units. Participants have the opportunity to become acquainted with the main goals of substitution therapy and the benefits that prisons achieve by applying it. In addition, the most important methods of this type of treatment and its ethical basis have been described. This course is to support prison doctors, contracted doctors, prison health care workers, prison administration, NGOs and others in delivering or supporting substitution treatment to opioid dependent prisoners.
Condom Distribution Program in Prison
In this course we analysis of the studies and other published and unpublished data on the effectiveness of condom provision in prisons. We present examples of implementation of the programs of prisons with their assessment of the prisoners and the prison service and the long-term effects of use condoms in New South Wales prison in Australia. At the last is the conclusion and recommendation regarding condom provision.
