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    ‘The voice of the street’: Using peer led outreach with people who use drugs to inform the development of Ireland’s National Drug Strategy


    Melaugh, Brian and Rodrigues, Hannah (2017) ‘The voice of the street’: Using peer led outreach with people who use drugs to inform the development of Ireland’s National Drug Strategy. Social Work and Social Sciences Review, 19 (3). pp. 7-16. ISSN 1746-6105

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    Abstract

    The purpose of this article is to share how an Irish drugs advocacy organisation, UISCE conducted a consultation with ‘People Who Use Drugs’ (PWUD) to inform the development of Ireland’s National Drugs Strategy: Reducing Harm Supporting Recovery. People who use drugs are considered a ‘hard to reach’ or ‘hidden’ population’ who, because of their marginal status, are often absent from research and drug policy. Indeed, there is a lack of published data on how to engage with PWUD to inform policy development. The paper aims to extend the literature by highlighting how UISCE, employing a ‘peer-led street outreach’ approach, included 51 PWUD in the consultation to inform the Irish national drug strategy. Central to the paper is a description of the steps taken to conduct the consultation with a review of the challenges and benefits of using a ‘street based recruitment’ strategy to engage with hard to reach people who use drugs.
    Item Type: Article
    Keywords: hard to reach; people who use drugs; peer led; drug use; drug policy;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Social Sciences > Applied Social Studies
    Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute, MUSSI
    Item ID: 11667
    Identification Number: 10.1921/swssr.v19i3.1188
    Depositing User: Brian Melaugh
    Date Deposited: 12 Nov 2019 12:29
    Journal or Publication Title: Social Work and Social Sciences Review
    Publisher: PKP Publishing Services
    Refereed: Yes
    Related URLs:
    URI: https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/11667
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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