Injecting Advice

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Alternatives to Public Injecting

Written by Nigel Brunsdon on . Posted in , .

Harm Reduction Coalition invited experts from several countries to share their various SIF models, planning and policy development process, implementation challenges, and evaluation results. This report is a summary of the proceedings of the consultation.

Conclusions

At the risk of ‘spoilers’ here are the conclusions of the report:

  • People who use SIFs take better care of themselves, reduce or eliminate their needle sharing, use their drugs more safely, and ultimately reduce their drug use;
  • SIF participants gain access to other medical and social services and entry into drug treatment;
  • There has not been a single overdose death in any of these programs over many years of operation and many thousands supervised of injections;
  • SIFs do not increase drug use in the area, nor do they encourage young people to initiate drug use;
  • Crime and public nuisance decrease in the areas around these programs.
Resource developed by: Harm Reduction Coalition

Writer: Nigel Brunsdon

Nigel Brunsdon is the owner of Injecting Advice. He’s been working in harm reduction since the 1990’s, previously a frontline needle programme worker he now splits his time between photography and developing online resources for drugs workers and users.

Nigel Brunsdon

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