Drug use treatment during COVID-19 pandemic: community-based services in Nigeria

Drug-use dynamics, treatment need and availability of treatment facility: evidence from selected bunks in Uyo metropolis in Nigeria

“…We also found that majority of respondents were polydrug users. Although we found no prior empirical data on drug use among patrons of bunks in Nigeria, findings of the present study in these regards are consistent with results of studies in other hard-to-reach populations [17,22,26]. Findings of the present study also appear to lend credence to commonly-held perceptions regarding excessive and hazardous drug use in the bunks, a finding that could be attributed to availability of these drugs in an atmosphere devoid of apprehension about arrest by law enforcement agents.…”

“…The few available treatment facilities and inadequate personnel mean that waiting time would be unnecessarily extended since people congregate on the few available facilities from all over the state or even beyond. A number of NGO facilities, operating fee-based, residential treatment models (although some operate non-residential, out-patient services) also exist [22,23]. The financial implications of accessing these privately-owned NGO treatment centres are beyond the reach of most potential service users so there is a huge gap as regards meeting drug-use disorder treatment needs.…”

Understanding the Impacts of Novel Coronavirus Outbreaks on People Who Use Drugs: A Systematic Review to Inform Practice and Drug Policy Responses to COVID-19

“…Two of these three studies employed a quantitative method (Table 7) [39,60]. These were questionnaire surveys of PWUD sampled from homeless populations and those who attended drop-in services.…”

“…Only one of these three studies was judged as 'good' overall (WoE), one was 'satisfactory' and one was 'inadequate' indicating that the evidence around this group/setting is not good overall from included papers. However, the paper that was judged as inadequate in terms of overall WoE was one of the few to include analysis of the use of services throughout the early stages of the pandemic by gender and concluded that service use by women declined more than did service use by men (no analyses conducted using inferential statistics) [60].…”

“…These studies were few and again of limited quality. However, they highlighted that creating specific measures to support people who were homeless could be effective [62], that being in contact with harm reduction services was an effective way to convey important knowledge and information about COVID-19 [39] and potentially that women who use drugs were more affected by service disruptions than men [60]. In Scotland and the UK, people who were homeless (significant proportions of whom tend to be PWUD) were also provided with temporary accommodation in hotels during the initial wave of the pandemic [67,68] but the outcomes and impacts of these initiatives are currently under-researched (or under-reported) and so the results of these initiatives are not yet known.…”