Deal Us In
7
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Peer Leadership Improves Programs. Employ Peers and Pay Them Well.
Peers are individuals with recent or current lived experience of substance use. Peer leadership increases effectiveness and utilization of services. Peers have highly specialized relevant skills and should be paid accordingly.
What You Need To Know
Peer support in emergency rooms and other community settings is the most effective way to engage and support people who use drugs in care.
People who use drugs themselves are often best able to identify what works in a community that others know little about; they need to be involved if we want to create effective responses*.
Peer engagement can address equity of harm reduction services and interventions by fostering communication, building trust, increasing knowledge, and reducing stigma and discrimination to remove barriers and increase utilization of services*.
These individuals have highly nuanced and relevant skills and experience and should be compensated equitably with a living wage.
Where to Go for More Information
Nothing about us without us. Greater meaningful involvement of people who use illegal drugs: A public health, ethical, and human rights imperative. Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. (2005)
Examples
Research
Greer AM, Luchenski SA, Amlani A, Lacroix K, Burmeister C, Buxton JA. Peer engagement in harm reduction strategies and services: a critical case study and evaluation framework from British Columbia, Canada. BMC Public Health (2016)16:452 Available at http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889‐016‐3136‐4
Marshall Z, Dechman MK, Minichiello Alcock AL, Harris GE, “Peering into the literature: A systematic review of the roles of people who inject drugs in harm reduction initiatives,” Drug Alcohol Depend 151 (0), pp. 1–14, 2015
Ti L,Tzemis D, Buxton JA. Peer engagement in the context of policy and program development: A review of the literature Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy (2012) 7:47 http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/7/1/47
Leaders To Know
Louise Vincent : Louise is the Executive Director of NC Survivors Union and is a human rights activist and educator whose work and expertise in drug user health, and social justice have driven the expansion and acceptance of harm reduction. She holds a Masters in Public Health from University of North Carolina Greensboro and was the inaugural recipient of the Any Positive Change award established in honor of Dan Bigg at the 2018 National Harm Reduction Coalition conference. Louise’s passion and expertise have created opportunities for systems change and movement building locally, nationally, and internationally.