A timely opportunity for harm reduction
Drug consumption rooms are about so much more than needles. As discussion among people involved in facilities around Europe showed (p6), we have a timely opportunity here – to integrate harm reduction with our work on new substances and new risk behaviours and get in place environments that work on so many levels.
Sharing the breadth of experience brings in all kinds of medical care and counselling, as well as work on an alcohol maintenance programme. We’re not just talking about the absolutely essential safe environment for drug use but about wellness, better medical treatments – and about helping people out of poor housing and living environments. The best examples of partnerships that make this happen also include the police and the authorities. The groundswell of support for such facilities in this country must translate to new political will.
In no other area of healthcare would we be dithering over how to run a health centre. Informed by the wealth of expertise – underpinned by a solid bank of research – the action points should be obvious. Why wait for the next release of drug-related death figures to tell us we’re not doing it right?
Read the June issue as an online magazine (you can also download it as a PDF from the online magazine)
Claire Brown, editor