Using mindfulness to develop health education strategies for blood borne virus prevention in injecting drug use

Abstract

Aims: Prevention education has had limited success in reducing transmission of blood borne virus among people who inject drugs. Innovative approaches to prevention education are required. Method: This study used video recordings of injecting episodes and interviews with participants reviewing their video recordings to explore the concept of mindlessness as a new tool for prevention education. Findings: The data demonstrate elements of mindlessness in participants' injecting practice. Participants were unable to provide detailed description of their practice, could not recall the origin of their practices, described limited sensitivity to the environment around them and described learned behaviours 'dropping out of mind'. Conclusions: Although potentially useful as a prevention tool, prevention messages using mindlessness concepts should be developed in collaboration with injecting drug users to avoid judgmental or alienating messages. Finally, the use of these video recordings themselves can be a powerful education tool given the very hidden and stigmatized nature of injecting drug use.

Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Reducing Smoking among Addicts

“…Meanwhile, in the research of Aghayousefi, Orki, Zare and Imani (2013), mindfulness was recognized as an effective technique in reducing addiction and drug abuse in persons (21). The results of Terlur, Lee Booth and Karaterz's research (2010) suggest that training of prevention technique with mindfulness can have relatively successful impacts on judgment and disdain for injecting drug users and it is consistent with the present study (22). The result of another study showed that mindfulness training is effective in the treatment of substance use disorder and their finding is consistent with the present study showing that mindfulness training is effective in reducing the amount of cigarette in smokers.…”

‘It's Fast, It's Quick, It Stops Me Being Sick’: How to influence preparation of opioid tablets for injection

“…Participants indicated the value of credibility and experience in a source of information (such as another user) as well as trust in the source of information (such as the harm reduction worker). This is indicative in the literature regarding peer education among PWID . Research pertaining to the role of peer workers in health centres regarding HCV treatment access among PWID found that trust among peers was a valuable resource for harm reduction workers .…”

“…Previous research with injecting drug users at Sydney MSIC explored the challenges in changing the habits associated with injecting . Injecting can become a deeply engrained habit requiring little direct attention to perform .…”

“…Previous research with injecting drug users at Sydney MSIC explored the challenges in changing the habits associated with injecting . Injecting can become a deeply engrained habit requiring little direct attention to perform . Consequently, changing such deep‐rooted, habitual processes is difficult and presents additional challenges for teaching new techniques associated with harm reduction strategies.…”

A Comparison of Behavioral Activation/Inhibition Systems and Mindfulness in Addicts and Non-addicted Males

“…Mindfulness has also been used in the field of drug addiction with positive treatment results and effects. If mindfulness is to be combined with preventive methods, it would have relatively successful effects on judgment and aversion to drugs in injection drug users [30]. Temptation is the strongest predictor of relapse among other predictors.…”