Grant: Project Grant

In the context of the current fentanyl poisoning crisis, people who use drugs (PWUD) have been urged to avoid using drugs alone due to increased risk of death associated with unwitnessed overdose (OD). In Canada, evidence-based interventions that have been implemented to reduce risks associated with unwitnessed OD, such as supervised consumption sites, have largely been developed in urban areas, and are less appropriate for semi-urban and rural communities. Since 2018, we have built a solid foundation for community-based participatory action research (CB-PAR) in the Fraser East region of BC. We identified why and how people come to use drugs alone in this region, showing that relationships with loved ones are important mediators of decisions to use alone. We then examined family carers perspectives on stressors that fracture important relationships, leading to isolation of PWUD and using alone. We are now proposing the next extension of this work, to develop an intervention to equip family carers with the information, skills, and the connections they need to foster resilient relationships with PWUD and prevent isolation and using alone. Working alongside a network of peer researchers, services providers, and decision-makers, we will use a patient-oriented, community-based, participatory research approach to design and implement an intervention to foster resilience in relationships between loved ones, and to support loved ones to stay connected during crisis points, to reduce risks that lead to using alone and death due to unwitnessed OD. Our aims are to: 1.Engage the community in dialogue to identify strategies and approaches for building PWUD-family carer relationship resilience during crisis points; 2.Consolidate the theoretical framework for developing and implementing an intervention to enhance PWUD-family carer relationship resilience; 3.Develop & test an acceptable intervention to enhance PWUD-family carer relationship resilience during crisis points.