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Overdose Prevention and Housing: a Qualitative Study Examining Drug Use, Overdose Risk, and Access to Safer Supply in Permanent Supportive Housing in Vancouver, Canada

The majority of overdose deaths in British Columbia (BC) occur among people using illicit substances alone in private residences. Some supportive housing in BC includes on-site access to a variety of health and substance use–related services. More recently, a number of supportive housing locations h...

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Autores principales: Ivsins, Andrew, MacKinnon, Laura, Bowles, Jeanette M., Slaunwhite, Amanda, Bardwell, Geoff
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9430005/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36044156
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11524-022-00679-7
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author Ivsins, Andrew
MacKinnon, Laura
Bowles, Jeanette M.
Slaunwhite, Amanda
Bardwell, Geoff
author_facet Ivsins, Andrew
MacKinnon, Laura
Bowles, Jeanette M.
Slaunwhite, Amanda
Bardwell, Geoff
author_sort Ivsins, Andrew
collection PubMed
description The majority of overdose deaths in British Columbia (BC) occur among people using illicit substances alone in private residences. Some supportive housing in BC includes on-site access to a variety of health and substance use–related services. More recently, a number of supportive housing locations have started offering prescribed safer supply medications to people at high overdose risk, though these remain limited and under-evaluated. In this study, we describe the drug use practices — including access to and use of on-site supervised consumption, OAT, and prescribed safer supply medications — of study participants living in permanent supportive housing with integrated primary care, substance use treatment services, and supervised consumption spaces. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 residents of a permanent supportive housing site in Vancouver, Canada. Data were analyzed using a sequential process to identify both a priori (e.g., low-barrier substance use treatment, pandemic effects on service access) and emerging themes (e.g., using alone). Most (N = 27) study participants reported using alone in their rooms, despite having access to an on-site supervised consumption area. Reasons for using alone include the following: preference for being alone, discretion/stigma, and restrictive housing policies. Less than half (N = 12) of the study participants accessed on-site prescribed safer supply medications. Participants receiving on-site prescribed safer supply described positive benefits including reduced use of illicit opioids, and less reliance on illicit income generation activities. On-site prescribed safer supply programs within supportive housing environments are an important tool in addressing overdose risk.
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spelling pubmed-94300052022-09-01 Overdose Prevention and Housing: a Qualitative Study Examining Drug Use, Overdose Risk, and Access to Safer Supply in Permanent Supportive Housing in Vancouver, Canada Ivsins, Andrew MacKinnon, Laura Bowles, Jeanette M. Slaunwhite, Amanda Bardwell, Geoff J Urban Health Article The majority of overdose deaths in British Columbia (BC) occur among people using illicit substances alone in private residences. Some supportive housing in BC includes on-site access to a variety of health and substance use–related services. More recently, a number of supportive housing locations have started offering prescribed safer supply medications to people at high overdose risk, though these remain limited and under-evaluated. In this study, we describe the drug use practices — including access to and use of on-site supervised consumption, OAT, and prescribed safer supply medications — of study participants living in permanent supportive housing with integrated primary care, substance use treatment services, and supervised consumption spaces. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 residents of a permanent supportive housing site in Vancouver, Canada. Data were analyzed using a sequential process to identify both a priori (e.g., low-barrier substance use treatment, pandemic effects on service access) and emerging themes (e.g., using alone). Most (N = 27) study participants reported using alone in their rooms, despite having access to an on-site supervised consumption area. Reasons for using alone include the following: preference for being alone, discretion/stigma, and restrictive housing policies. Less than half (N = 12) of the study participants accessed on-site prescribed safer supply medications. Participants receiving on-site prescribed safer supply described positive benefits including reduced use of illicit opioids, and less reliance on illicit income generation activities. On-site prescribed safer supply programs within supportive housing environments are an important tool in addressing overdose risk. Springer US 2022-08-31 2022-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9430005/ /pubmed/36044156 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11524-022-00679-7 Text en © The New York Academy of Medicine 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
spellingShingle Article
Ivsins, Andrew
MacKinnon, Laura
Bowles, Jeanette M.
Slaunwhite, Amanda
Bardwell, Geoff
Overdose Prevention and Housing: a Qualitative Study Examining Drug Use, Overdose Risk, and Access to Safer Supply in Permanent Supportive Housing in Vancouver, Canada
title Overdose Prevention and Housing: a Qualitative Study Examining Drug Use, Overdose Risk, and Access to Safer Supply in Permanent Supportive Housing in Vancouver, Canada
title_full Overdose Prevention and Housing: a Qualitative Study Examining Drug Use, Overdose Risk, and Access to Safer Supply in Permanent Supportive Housing in Vancouver, Canada
title_fullStr Overdose Prevention and Housing: a Qualitative Study Examining Drug Use, Overdose Risk, and Access to Safer Supply in Permanent Supportive Housing in Vancouver, Canada
title_full_unstemmed Overdose Prevention and Housing: a Qualitative Study Examining Drug Use, Overdose Risk, and Access to Safer Supply in Permanent Supportive Housing in Vancouver, Canada
title_short Overdose Prevention and Housing: a Qualitative Study Examining Drug Use, Overdose Risk, and Access to Safer Supply in Permanent Supportive Housing in Vancouver, Canada
title_sort overdose prevention and housing: a qualitative study examining drug use, overdose risk, and access to safer supply in permanent supportive housing in vancouver, canada
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9430005/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36044156
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11524-022-00679-7
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