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March 2006

Working with drug injectors 'resistant' to treatment

30 March 2006
Glasgow

The aim of this conference was to examine if various services can strengthen their responses to working with drug injectors 'resistant' to treatment.

Prescribing substitute drugs - like Methadone - within a supportive treatment programme can be a powerful way to reduce a range of harmful behaviours such as:

criminal activity linked to drug use
using illegal street drugs
costs to families, local communities and the wider society.

Supportive treatment, linked to prescribing, can also play a powerful part in reducing drug-injecting harm by encouraging drug users to move from risky injecting behaviour towards giving it up altogether. However moving away from this type of behaviour may not be straightforward for some drug users 'resistant' to treatment with 'hidden' injecting taking place on an occasional or regular basis.

Key topics for debate were:

What do mean by 'resistance' and do treatment and care services need to consider other responses when working with ‘resistant’ injectors?
What are the views of drug users?
Are there vulnerable groups requiring additional responses such as prisoners, ex-prisoners, and those experiencing homeless?
What are the challenges for residential services and strategic bodies such as local Drug Action Teams?

The following Powerpoint presentations can be downloaded:

Setting the scene – make sense of drug injectors and ‘resistance’(125kb) - Professor Avril Taylor, University of Paisley

Three views on strengthening responses to drug injectors 'resistant' to treatment:

Dr Kennedy Roberts, Homeless Addiction Team, Glasgow

Dr Oliver Aldridge, NHS Lothian (944kb)

Dr Brian Kidd, Tayside Drug Problem Service