Supervised-consumption services are known to be effective in reducing drug-related harms. It is now time to move from asking whether such services are effective to asking whether, how and under what conditions their benefits can be maximized. Integrated and co-located health service models — effectively “one-stop shops” — could improve health outcomes for people who inject drugs by combining the prevention of immediate drug-related harms with access to primary care, mental health care and social service programs.
Type: Toolkit
Integrating supervised consumption into a continuum of care for people who use drugs
The Safer Bathroom Toolkit – Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research
Bathrooms can provide private, seemingly safe spaces for people to use substances, especially when they are unable to access supervised consumption or overdose prevention sites. However, there can be serious risks to using substances in bathrooms, including overdosing alone and potentially not receiving lifesaving help in time. Restricting access to bathrooms or implementing measures to discourage substance use in bathrooms does not work. Rather, doing so increases risks for people who use substances, staff, and other people at risk of injury due to unsafe bathroom lighting, layout, and so forth. There are ways of making bathrooms safer for people who use substances. This toolkit will help you to do that.
Distributing Safer Smoking Pipes Increases Engagement with Harm Reduction Services in the United States: Findings from the National Survey of Syringe Services Programs
Findings showed SSPs distributing safer smoking pipes had more participant engagement and naloxone distribution. To maximize their full individual and population-level health benefits, SSPs should be supported technically, legally, and financially to implement safer smoking supply distribution for their participants.
UW SHaRP – Supporting Harm Reduction Resources
The SHaRP team creates guidance and resources focused on data and monitoring and evaluation focused on people who use drugs, SSPs, and harm reduction programs. This website hosts several guidance and resources created by the SHaRP team.
RTI International – Recommended best practices for effective syringe exchange programs in the United States: Results of a consensus meeting (2019)
This document summarizes the consensus among syringe exchange program (SEP) experts of the underlying principles and programmatic elements that enable or constrain SEP effectiveness. Effective SEPs have the support of local governing bodies and match sound operational characteristics with responsiveness to the unique features of their host communities. The panel highlighted operational characteristics that are critical for effective SEPs, and measures to be avoided because they undermine the primary goal of SEP: to make new, sterile syringes available to IDUs.
NACo Opioid Solutions Strategy Brief on SSPs
Guidance for county leaders considering best practices related to syringe access and related services.
New York State – Syringe Access and Disposal
Information including policies and procedures for syringe access programs and sharps disposal in New York state.
CDC Syringe Services Programs: A Technical Package of Effective Strategies and Approaches for Planning, Design, and Implementation
This technical package provides evidence of the effectiveness of strategies and approaches for supporting successful planning, design, implementation, and sustainability of syringe services programs (SSPs).
CSTE – Overdose Surveillance Capacity Building
Since 2018, CSTE has partnered with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) to provide additional support for jurisdictions operating programs for drug overdose surveillance by conducting the Drug Overdose Epidemiological Surveillance Capacity Assessment. Through this partnership, CSTE created standard guidance, workshops, online learning courses, and resources to increase capacity to conduct drug overdose surveillance. See featured resources and free training opportunities on this page.
