Despite COVID, we managed to stay in touch with most of our community through out the year.
Meeting people face to face, whether as individuals or in a group setting, is a big part of what we do. We pride ourselves on delivering true, organic, peer education by getting out amongst our community which just wasn’t possible given the pandemic and repeated lockdowns. For the first time ever we had difficulty meeting our targets which was disappointing but it does demonstrate how much we rely on face to face peer education.
“Whilst virtual platforms work well in lots of situations, we found them to be unpopular for many members of the marginalised community of people who inject drugs. This was due to some not having access to the technology they needed combined with shared feelings of distrust in a virtual world.”
Peer Network Program
The Peer Network Program had fewer contacts during lockdown but they distributed more equipment.
All peer networkers completed COVID specific infection control training and were granted essential worker status by the department of health. A long time peer networker had regularly been providing equipment to residents of a supported accommodation site so often that it clearly demonstrated the need for an in house fixed service. 18months later and that particular site is now a registered needle and syringe program. This was a significant win for the residents and is also what our work is all about.
The Towers Lockdown
Below: Flemington Towers lockdown
When news of the tower lockdowns emerged we knew we had to help our community out. We immediately had a team of workers on site who set about trying to find out just exactly what we were dealing with. The towers were home to approximately 3000 people with varying levels of need including access to pharmacotherapies and other prescribed drugs. We teamed up with doctors and nurses to ensure that everyone got their
prescribed medication and we were also able to provide referrals to other health and welfare services. We were there to advocate for people which ended up with us doing some shopping runs for people who were caught short. I hope we managed to make life a little bit easier for a bunch of people who were caught in an awful situation?
Right: The HPT doing outreach at the Flemington Towers lockdown
Hotel Outreach
Roughly 1000 rough sleepers were housed in city hotels during the height of the pandemic which included many of our community members.
We joined up with staff from Youth Projects and The Royal Melbourne Hospital and provided regular outreach contact to the people staying in the hotels. This year saw us having to adapt the way we do things and we were constantly on the look out for different ways of doing what we needed to get done.
Drug Overdose Peer Education
Our naloxone administration workshops have moved to an online format that has been really well received.
By providing this virtually it has meant that we have had a lot more involvement from community located in regional areas, in fact they made up 20% of participants. Changes to legislation and the introduction of Nyxoid, the nasal spray version of naloxone, has resulted in a big increase in the number of people wanting to carry naloxone.
Above: Nyxoid delivery TikTok ad for online naloxone training and overdose awareness campaign
Comments