Today is the last day of National Addictions Awareness Week, an opportunity to highlight solutions to address drug-related harms. Something that’s barely been mentioned in this sector during the last seven days is the ongoing drug poisoning epidemic, declared a public health emergency over eight years ago.
When the drug poisoning epidemic is brought up in the media, it mentions the number of people who have died, and it is always important to emphasize this. However, what is almost never mentioned are the tens of thousands lives being saved because someone was right there with a naloxone kit and was able to use it in time.
One of the ways this is accomplished is by Peer Witnessing.
The RainCity Peer Witnessing Program started as a pilot project in 2016 at three sites and quickly grew to nine sites in 2017. People were dying from poisoned drugs was because they were using them on their own, with no one there to help or intervene. The Peer witness program was designed by folks with lived/living experience to witness people living in RainCity buildings use substances safely in designated rooms.
The program provides peer-based support and witnessing of use in the places drug users live to increase safety and comfort for those most directly affected by overdose. It also reduces the pressure on the support staff and provides opportunities for connecting with people. A lot of folks use the rooms not to use substances but to talk to someone who can relate to what they may be going through. The most positive aspect of this program is how peer workers enrich the community within the whole building.
When people in other places like New York and Australia first heard about Peer Witnessing, they were amazed and at the same time realized how much sense this made – having someone there who can provide an intricate, skillful, life-saving response, and “showing up in the face of despair.”
The theme this year for National Addictions Awareness week is Forging Connections, which can mean working together with people from other backgrounds or different opinions and approaches. It can also mean someone making a connection while they sit next to someone else, maybe for the first time, maybe they’re longtime friends, both of them knowing they are the better for it. And they’ll both be around tomorrow.
Tell us what you think of the Peer Witnessing Program.
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