Project 466674

Background: In 2020, there were 6265 opioid poisoning deaths in Canada, marking the most devastating year for overdose deaths. During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to substance use related supports has decreased while the illicit drug supply became more toxic. Supervised consumption sites (SCS) can reduce overdose deaths, but are not accessible to all people who use drugs (PWUD). The National Overdose Response Service (NORS) is an overdose prevention phone line created to overcome these barriers by increasing access to SCS. Objectives: This research will evaluate: (1) who is using the NORS service, and what drug use characteristics do they exhibit?; (2) do these characteristics differ from people using other types of SCS?; (3) does NORS have an impact on harm reduction practices or drug use patterns?; and (4) why are people using NORS as opposed to other SCS?. Methods and analyses: To address the first research question, we will use NORS administrative data to understand clients demographic and drug use characteristics. To address the second research question, we will compare the administrative data to reports gathered from existing SCS. For the third and fourth questions, we will recruit 150 NORS clients to participate in an online survey. A subset of 40 survey participants will participate in semi-structured interviews to identify strengths and weakness of the NORS service. To address the first three research questions, we will use descriptive statistics of the administrative data and survey results. To assess the fourth question, we will use thematic analysis to describe the open-ended interview responses. Significance: This study aims to address the growing overdose crisis by describing the role of phone-based SCS within existing harm reduction tools.