Grant: Operating Grant: Opioid Crisis Knowledge Synthesis

BACKGROUND: In Canada, it is estimated that over 3,000 people will die of an opioid-related overdose in 2017. People who use substances often experience intense stigma and judgments when they attempt to access health care resulting in avoidance, delays and even death. This stigma is increased for Indigenous people, people living in poverty and on the basis of gender, sex and age. Equity orientated care is an approach that aims to mitigate stigma and enhance access to health and social services. PURPOSE: The purpose of the proposed scoping review is to systematically map the field of frameworks, principles and guides that integrate or incorporate cultural safety, trauma informed care and principles of harm reduction to inform policies and practices in the pillars of prevention, treatment and harm reduction within a health equity and decolonizing framework. METHODOLOGY: Consistent with the promotion of health equity and Indigenous methodologies we will draw on community based research in order to conduct this work. We will conduct our scoping review using the Joanna Briggs Institute Methodology to identify frameworks, principles or guidelines that integrate or incorporate cultural safety, harm reduction and trauma and violence informed care as a response to substance use. We will place our findings within a health equity and decolonizing framework. RELEVANCE: We will map the frameworks, principles, and guides identified through the scoping review and synthesize findings to inform recommendations for policy and practice and inform overdose responses. A key outcome of this work will be the uptake of knowledge related to equity-orientated interventions that incorporate cultural safety, trauma and violence informed care and principles of harm reduction within a health equity and decolonizing framework.