“People Knew They Could Come Here to Get Help”: An Ethnographic Study of Assisted Injection Practices at a Peer-Run ‘Unsanctioned’ Supervised Drug Consumption Room in a Canadian Setting
Ryan McNeil, Will Small, Hugh Lampkin, Kate Shannon, Thomas Kerr
Abstract
People who require help injecting are disproportionately vulnerable to drug-related harm, including HIV transmission. North America's only sanctioned SIF operates in Vancouver, Canada under an exemption to federal drug laws, which imposes operating regulations prohibiting assisted injections. In response, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) launched a peer-run unsanctioned SIF in which trained peer volunteers provide assisted injections to increase the coverage of supervised injection services and minimize drug-related harm. We undertook qualitative interviews (n = 23) and ethnographic observation (50 h) to explore how this facility shaped assisted injection practices. Findings indicated that VANDU reshaped the social, structural, and spatial contexts of assisted injection practices in a manner that minimized HIV and other health risks, while allowing people who require help injecting to escape drug scene violence. Findings underscore the need for changes to regulatory frameworks governing SIFs to ensure that they accommodate people who require help injecting.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 14. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 August 2022.
All research outputs
#2,743,746
of 26,608,834 outputs
Outputs from AIDS and Behavior
#357
of 3,497 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#22,056
of 211,044 outputs
Outputs of similar age from AIDS and Behavior
#2
of 51 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 26,608,834 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 89th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,497 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.0. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 211,044 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 51 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.
