Join us for a presentation by Dr Saket Priyadarshi on Scotland and the UK’s first ever safer drug consumption room. This is an opportunity for those working in community safety to learn more about safer drug consumption rooms – and to begin to discuss how we can bring communities with us as we work to tackle Scotland’s drug deaths crisis.
You may be interested to read our recent blog on Drug Consumption Rooms prior to attending this event.
Glasgow City HSCP Plans for a Safer Drug Consumption Facility:
Glasgow City are piloting Scotland’s first safer drug consumption facility (SDCF). SDCFs are supervised and controlled healthcare settings where people can consume drugs, obtained elsewhere in the presence of trained health professionals in clean, hygienic environments. The service aims to reduce the negative impact that injecting outdoors has on local residents, communities and businesses and reduce the harms associated with injecting drugs and support people to access appropriate help.
Safer drug consumption facilities (SDCFs) are supervised and controlled healthcare settings where people can consume drugs, obtained elsewhere, in the presence of trained health professionals, in clean and hygienic environments reducing the risk of overdose and infectious diseases whilst offering support and access to healthcare services.
They offer a compassionate, person-centred service which focuses on reducing the harms associated with injecting drug use and helps people access appropriate services to meet their needs. By doing so, they are able to reach an extremely vulnerable group who often do not engage with our existing services.
Why is a SDCF being proposed for Glasgow?
Following an outbreak of HIV in people who inject drugs in public places, a health needs assessment ‘Taking Away the Chaos’ was undertaken in Glasgow city centre. This found there are approximately 400 to 500 people injecting drugs in public places in Glasgow city centre on a regular basis. Injecting in public spaces increases the risk of infection and other drug related harms and causes a risk to the public from discarded injecting equipment and needles.
The report made several recommendations, including the introduction of a SDCF which a large body of high-quality research suggests will help reduce the health and social consequences of public injecting in the city centre.
Glasgow city centre is the focus of the proposal since local evidence tells us that this area has a high concentration of people who inject drugs in public places, especially in the south-eastern area. Locating the facility in the area where public injecting is already taking place will maximise uptake by the target population.
Speaker bio: Dr Saket Priyadarshi
Dr Saket Priyadarshi will oversee the development and operation of the new drug consumption room.
He is the Associate Medical Director in Greater Glasgow and Clyde alcohol and drug services. He is responsible for the professional leadership of medical staff and clinical governance of Alcohol and Drugs services in the largest health board in Scotland.
He is a graduate of the University of Glasgow medical school and qualified as a General Practitioner in 2003. Through working in deprived areas in the west of Scotland, he developed an interest in the management of substance misuse problems.
He is a member of the Glasgow city Alcohol Drug Partnership and chairs the city’s Alcohol and Drug Harms Prevention Sub-group and the Glasgow’s Short Life Working Group on Safer Drug Consumption Facility and Heroin Assisted Treatment.
Saket has been a member of various Scottish Government advisory committees in relation to drug policy and has worked with the European Monitoring Committee on Drugs and Drugs Addiction.
He is involved in research and holds Honorary positions at Glasgow Caledonian University and University of Glasgow