Training in self-injection with lower risks that mobilizes the people concerned

Background: The Know More Risk Less research fund offer a training for safer self-injection. This training is entirely free and is aimed at professionals working with people who inject drugs, as well as drug users who inject. Its goal is to promote the empowerment of injectable drug users and reduce the risks of viral and bacterial contamination.

Description of the Intervention: The training begins with a reminder of the history and principles of harm reduction. It then covers all the risks, stages, and tools associated with injection. Different types of filters, needles, and syringes are presented. Strategies to minimize product loss, overdoses, abscesses, and viral contamination (HCV and HIV) are detailed. The training concludes with the handling of injection equipment.

Engagement of Affected Individuals: The training mobilizes documentary resources or research findings, soliciting the expertise of individuals directly affected by drug injection. Several recruited trainers are people who inject drugs themselves and who can work as peer health mediators in medico-social structures. This mobilization of affected individuals serves two major purposes: first, it helps avoid providing recommendations disconnected from the reality of those who inject drugs; second, it promotes the empowerment of injectable drug users by responding to one of the founding principles of harm reduction, “nothing about us without us,” and by valuing their experience-based expertise, often undervalued in comparison to medical expertise.

Effectiveness of the Intervention: At the end of the training, satisfaction and competency questionnaires are distributed to participants. They report feeling more confident and competent in advising users on the equipment to use.

Conclusion: This training, based on therapeutic education strategies and scientific evidence, has thus demonstrated its effectiveness in improving the competencies of both users and professionals regarding safer self-injection. It also shows that it is possible to combine experiential knowledge with professional and scientific expertise.