Research into action? The Eastside Illicit Drinkers Group for Education's (EIDGE) experiences as a community‐based group in Vancouver, Canada

Brown, Loretta Jackson; Skulsh, John; Morgan, Rob; Kuehlke, Ron; Graham, Brittany

doi:10.1111/dar.12599

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Just as in the present study, this research underscored the importance of implementing a caring and compassionate approach toward people experiencing homelessness-an approach that includes taking the time to get to know each person; listening to them; letting them rest; and adjusting to their pace, needs, and aspirations (Evans et al, 2015). In a similar vein, other authors also pointed out how the incorporation of experiential knowledge on homelessness into the development and design of future wet services is a promising way to ensure that these services meet the needs of those they set out to assist (Brown et al, 2018;Hanna & Burke, 2019).…”

Section: Adapting Institutional Regulations and Mandates To Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing Wet Services in Montréal for Highly Vulnerable People Experiencing Homelessness who Use Alcohol

Poliquin¹,

Toussaint²,

Flores-Aranda

2022

IJOH

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Context: People experiencing homelessness and alcohol dependence are highly marginalized as they struggle to access various health and social services. This study is part of a broader feasibility study on the implementation of "wet services" in Montréal, Canada. Methods: Four focus groups were conducted with 20 participants working in the field of homelessness. The objectives of this study were to gather their perspectives on the need for wet services in Montréal, define the main purpose of such services, and identify the key factors promoting their success. Results: All participants felt that wet services could meet several critical needs of many people experiencing homelessness in Montréal, and most argued that they should also be implemented without delay. According to most participants, these services should be grounded in a harm reduction philosophy, take a low-threshold approach and be accessible to the target population at all times. Participants argued that wet services should primarily aim to offer a safe place to consume alcohol whilst also serving as a place where people experiencing homelessness could meet their basic needs, reconnect socially, and access various health and social services. However, participants cited a number of financial, logistical, and organizational constraints, such as control-related mechanisms (e.g., eligibility criteria, rigid bylaws, or the institutionalization and medicalization of services), which they feared could stand in the way of achieving the objectives of wet services or perpetuate the exclusion of people experiencing homelessness. To avoid these potential problems, most participants felt that wet services should be delivered by well-established and well-funded community-based organizations, accompanied by a variety of partnership arrangements, including those with health services. Conclusion: This qualitative study contributes to the growing body of evidence on alcohol-related harm reduction services. Its findings may serve to inform the eventual implementation of wet services in Montréal and in other locations.

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Section: Adapting Institutional Regulations and Mandates To Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing Wet Services in Montréal for Highly Vulnerable People Experiencing Homelessness who Use Alcohol

Poliquin¹,

Toussaint²,

Flores-Aranda

2022

IJOH

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“…The AKE project and writing of the VAS originated as an initiative of EIDGE, a peer-led education and advocacy group for illicit drinkers operated under the umbrella of VANDU. Illicit drinkers are people who drink alcohol substitutes not meant for human consumption (e.g., rubbing alcohol, mouthwash, and illegally produced homemade alcohol), and/or who drink beverage alcohol (e.g., beer and wine) in a way that is criminalized, like in unsanctioned public spaces [ 6 , 7 ]. Illicit drinkers’ use of public space is a result of visible poverty, namely, housing precarity, the gradual worsening of Vancouver’s housing crisis, the commonality of residing in Single Room Occupancy hotels (SROs) without common areas for socialising, intensive policing, and closure of neighbourhood parks.…”

Section: Illicit Drinking and Alcohol-related Harm In The Dtesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To avoid dangerously acute alcohol withdrawal symptoms, drinkers in the DTES often choose to consume harmful non-beverage alcohol substitutes, because they are cheaper and more geographically accessible than affordable beverage alcohol in the neighbourhood [ 7 , 8 ]. Drinkers’ structural marginalization is reflected by extremely high risk of drug poisoning death, emergency department use, police harassment, adulterant poisoning, hepatic injury, experience of interpersonal violence, robbery, accidents, hypothermia, dehydration, and traffic-related injury amongst our membership [ 6 – 8 ]. The ongoing violence of settler colonialism is a key driver of these and other alcohol-related harms for our membership, 80% of whom identify as Indigenous [ 8 ].…”

Section: Illicit Drinking and Alcohol-related Harm In The Dtesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This service gap is especially acute in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), where illicit drinkers experience disproportionately high-rates of alcohol-related harm and polydrug poisoning-related death [ 3 – 8 ]. These outcomes are deeply connected to the longstanding exclusion of people who use illicit alcohol from the harm reduction movement and broader forms of structural marginalization related to the ongoing violence of settler colonialism in Canada, legislated poverty, systemic racism, stigmatizing organization of health service delivery, and the financialization of housing [ 4 , 6 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vancouver’s Alcohol Knowledge Exchange: lessons learned from creating a peer-involved alcohol harm reduction strategy in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

Bailey,

Graham,

Harps

et al. 2023

Harm Reduct J

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Despite high rates of harm attributable to alcohol use itself and the associated marginalization of illicit drinkers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), alcohol-specific harm reduction services there are under-resourced and highly disconnected from one another. In response to these conditions and high rates of death amongst its membership, the Eastside Illicit Drinkers Group for Education, an affiliate group of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, convened a regular meeting of stakeholders, termed a “community of practice” in 2019 to bring together peers who used beverage and non-beverage alcohol, shelter and harm reduction service providers, public health professionals, clinicians, and policymakers to improve system-level capacity to reduce alcohol-related harm. The discussions that followed from these meetings were transformed into the Vancouver Alcohol Strategy (VAS), a comprehensive, harm reduction-oriented policy framework for alcohol harm reduction in the DTES. This article highlights our experiences producing community-led alcohol policy through the VAS with specific attention to the ways in which people who use alcohol themselves were centred throughout the policy development process. We also provide summary overviews of each of the VAS document’s 6 thematic areas for action, highlighting a sampling of the 47 total unique recommendations. Historically, people who use non-beverage alcohol and whose use of alcohol in public spaces is criminalized due to housing precarity and visible poverty have been excluded from the development of population-level alcohol policies that can harm this specific population. The process of policy development undertaken by the VAS has attempted to resist this top-down approach to public health policy development related to alcohol control by intentionally creating space for people with lived experience to guide our recommendations. We conclude by suggesting that a grassroots enthusiasm for harm reduction focused policy development exists in Vancouver’s DTES, and requires resources from governmental public health institutions to meaningfully prevent and reduce alcohol-related and policy-induced harms.

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“…However, recent research that evaluates the social and scienti c impact of North America's longest and largest drug user advocacy group, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), has demonstrated that PWUDs are capable of collectively advocating for health and wellbeing of marginalized groups [17]. Furthermore, prior ethnographic studies have noted that PWUDs through VANDU and its a liate drug user lead groups have the capacity to not only advocate and give voice to the most marginalized members of society, but they have the capability to transform the discriminatory rhetoric around the war on drugs [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Synthetic Opioid Epidemic: A Study Protocol to Determine Whether People Who Use Drugs Can Influence or Shape Public Opinion via Mass Media

Jozaghi

VVANoD

2021

Preprint

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BackgroundWe are currently witnessing an ongoing drug overdose death epidemic in many nations linked to the distribution of illegally manufactured potent synthetic opioids. While many health policy makers and researchers have focused on the root causes and possible solutions to the current crisis, there has been little focus on the power of advocacy and community action by people who use drugs (PWUDs). Specifically, there has been no research on the role of PWUDs in engaging and influencing mass media opinion.MethodsBy relying on one of the longest and largest peer-run drug user advocacy groups in the world, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), newspaper articles, television reports, and magazines that VANDU or its members have been directly involved in will be identified via two data bases (the Canadian Newsstream & Google News). The news articles and videos related to the health of PWUDs and issues affecting PWUDs from 1997 to the end of 2020 will be analyzed qualitatively using Nvivo software.ResultsNot Applicable because it is a study protocol and data has not been collected and analyzed. ConclusionAs our communities are entering another phase of the drug overdose epidemic, acknowledging and partnering with PWUDs could play an integral part in advancing the goals of harm reduction, treatment, and human rights. Trial registrationNot applicable because it uses secondary data.

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Research into action? The Eastside Illicit Drinkers Group for Education's (EIDGE) experiences as a community‐based group in Vancouver, Canada

Cited by 8 publications

References 4 publications

Implementing Wet Services in Montréal for Highly Vulnerable People Experiencing Homelessness who Use Alcohol

Implementing Wet Services in Montréal for Highly Vulnerable People Experiencing Homelessness who Use Alcohol

Vancouver’s Alcohol Knowledge Exchange: lessons learned from creating a peer-involved alcohol harm reduction strategy in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

The Synthetic Opioid Epidemic: A Study Protocol to Determine Whether People Who Use Drugs Can Influence or Shape Public Opinion via Mass Media

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