People Who Use Drugs

This presentation will focus on the relationship between trauma and substance use as it relates to treatment for women, as well as a discussion of impactful trauma-informed and gender-responsive interventions. The evidence-based interventions will be based on Seeking Safety and Finding Your Best Self models, both of which are present-focused and easily implemented in any treatment setting.

Researchers looked at survey responses from women of reproductive age across eight rural U.S. regions to determine the association between contraceptive use and SUD treatment, healthcare utilization, and substance use.

Closing Remarks

More people are dying from overdose now than at any point in history. Individuals learned about three innovative communication campaigns that challenge stigma, center people who use drugs, and build support for harm reduction as a lifesaving strategy to reduce overdose deaths.

During this session, we discussed what meaningful inclusion is (and is not) and we offered tangible steps toward developing trust, dignity, and inclusion of PWUDs. Meeting people where they are requires an element of internal self-reflection and honesty, both personally and within the organization.

COVID-19 has undoubtedly brought about great loss and tremendous societal change— and with it, perhaps, some opportunity. As healthcare systems have been pushed to the brink and supply chains upended, people found themselves unable to access essential services for prolonged periods of time. People who use drugs (PWUD) have been particularly vulnerable to these disruptions, as traditional syringe services and harm reduction programs quickly pivoted to minimize person-to-person interaction while still working to provide life-saving services. Now is the time to leverage all that we have learned during COVID-19 to effectively plan and prepare for future public health crises and continue to advocate for much needed flexibility in service delivery for PWUD.

If you received specific disposal instructions from your healthcare provider (e.g., doctor, pharmacist) for your unused or expired medicine, you should follow those instructions to dispose of your medicine. The best disposal option is to find a drug take back location, which may be found in retail, hospital, or clinic pharmacies; and/or law enforcement facilities.

Use the search engine above maintained by the DEA to find permanent drug disposal locations.

People who inject drugs (PWID) are likely to experience wounds and infection related to their injection drug use. Common wounds and infections experienced by PWID include blood poisoning (septicemia), infection of the heart lining (endocarditis), tetanus, hepatitis, bruising, collapsed veins, abscesses and blood clots. Preventing and caring for wounds in PWID requires special consideration of the conditions surrounding drug use.

Syringe services programs (SSPs) remain highly effective, cost-saving interventions for the prevention of blood-borne infections among people who inject drugs. However, there have been restrictions regarding financial resources allocated to these programs, particularly in the US South. This study aimed to provide cost data regarding the implementation and first-year operations of an academic-based SSP utilizing fixed and mobile strategies, including the integration of onsite wound care.