Grant: Catalyst Grant: Quadruple Aim and Equity

The opioid crisis has disproportionately affected individuals who use substances alone. Individuals site many barriers to reach evidence-based supervised consumption sites (SCS), including geographic distance, inability to use inhalational substances, and fear of being recognized. With over 70% of national overdoses occurring when people use alone in their own homes, innovative harm reduction supports need to be provided to reach this population, and remove the identified barriers. Virtual supervised consumption services, also known as remote overdose monitoring, are a novel approach to bringing SCS to people's homes so they do not use alone. Individuals using substances are remotely monitored through a phone line or smartphone application and if they overdose, emergency response services are sent to their home to reverse their overdose. There are three predominant forms of remote monitoring services in Alberta, however, there are limited studies examining the impact of these services and key aspects of their service. In this project, we aim to determine the key infrastructure components that individuals who operate the line and their users value in remote monitoring. Additionally, we aim to understand from both providers and users how best to share knowledge around remote overdose monitoring with individuals who use alone and their families. This knowledge will help others establish their own virtual monitoring programs, help the current operators improve their services, as well as help us understand how to reach individuals who use substances alone with this intervention.