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Category: covid

  • Supporting people who use drugs in shelter settings during COVID‐19

    Supporting people who use drugs in shelter settings during COVID‐19

    supporting people who use drugs in shelters supporting people who use drugs in shelters

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    “This document is one of a series of six national guidance documents, rapidly developed by the CRISM network at the request of the Government of Canada. Collectively, the six documents address urgent needs of people who use substances, service providers, and decision makers in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. The urgent nature of this work required rapid development and dissemination of this guidance. This, and the continuing evolution of the knowledge base regarding COVID-19, precluded CRISM from conducting a comprehensive review of the relevant literature. However, when available, scientific evidence is cited in support of the expert advice offered herein.”

    Source: CRISM

  • Changes to drug supply, access to services and resulting health harms

    Changes to drug supply, access to services and resulting health harms

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    “This alert is based on information collected by the Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (CCENDU) between March 31 and May 10, 2020. It focuses on the impact of containment efforts related to COVID-19 on the illegal drug supply and access to services, and the associated health harms. Although there were limited data sensitive to these changes collected systematically, there was a convergence of reports from multiple sources in several regions across Canada, so that CCSA and CCENDU judged it better to share imperfect, timely information than no information.”

    Source: Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction

  • Strategies for a gender-inclusive response to COVID-19

    Strategies for a gender-inclusive response to COVID-19

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    gender inclusive response to covid 19

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    “Public health strategies aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19, including physical distancing, frequent hand washing, and self-isolation, impact all of us, and in particular, the marginalized communities that we work with. As we continue to work with community stakeholders to integrate these strategies, it is important to also integrate strategies that address the existing social determinants of health that impact WHAI’s priority populations of women (women living with HIV, African, Caribbean and Black [ACB] women including newcomers, Indigenous women, Trans women, women who use substances, women who experience violence, and women who are or have been incarcerated). Below are some considerations that have arisen to date.”

    Source: Women & HIV/AIDS Initiative

  • How to make cloth face masks to slow the spread of COVID-19

    How to make cloth face masks to slow the spread of COVID-19

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    “CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.

    CDC also advises the use of simple cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others. Cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure.”

    Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US)

  • COVID-19 Stimulant Use and Harm Reduction

    COVID-19 Stimulant Use and Harm Reduction

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    “The following is a non-exhaustive tip sheet for stimulant-preferring or polydrug users, focusing on amphetamines, cocaine and crack cocaine. While COVID-19 is primarily considered a respiratory infection, our heart and breathing systems are highly interdependent.

    Stimulant use—including cocaine and amphetamines—can have a number of negative effects on heart health. Cocaine and amphetamine use can each lead to very dangerous, sometimes fatal consequences, including very high blood pressure, heart attacks, irregular heart rhythms, stroke, and other kinds of damage to the heart.”

    Source: Vital Strategies

  • Preparedness, prevention and control of COVID-19 in prisons

    Preparedness, prevention and control of COVID-19 in prisons

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    “People deprived of their liberty, such as people in prisons and other places of detention, are likely to be more vulnerable to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak than the general population because of the confined conditions in which they live together for prolonged periods of time. Moreover, experience shows that prisons, jails and similar settings where people are gathered in close proximity may act as a source of infection, amplification and spread of infectious diseases within and beyond prisons. Prison health is therefore widely considered as public health.

    The response to COVID-19 in prisons and other places of detention is particularly challenging, requiring a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, for the following reasons:

    1. Widespread transmission of an infectious pathogen affecting the community at large poses a threat of introduction of the infectious agent into prisons and other places of detention; the risk of rapidly increasing transmission of the disease within prisons or other places of detention is likely to have an amplifying effect on the epidemic, swiftly multiplying the number of people affected.
    2. Efforts to control COVID-19 in the community are likely to fail if strong infection prevention and control (IPC) measures, adequate testing, treatment and care are not carried out in prisons and other places of detention as well.
    3. In many countries, responsibility for health-care provision in prisons and other places of detention lies with the Ministry of Justice/Internal Affairs. Even if this responsibility is held by the Ministry of Health, coordination and collaboration between health and justice sectors are paramount if the health of people in prisons and other places of detention and the wider community is to be protected.
    4. People in prisons and other places of detention are already deprived of their liberty and may react differently to further restrictive measures imposed upon them.”

    Source: World Health Organization

  • Operations Manual: COVID-19 Management in Housing

    Operations Manual: COVID-19 Management in Housing

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    Purpose: this document provides guidance for implementing and operating COVID-19 facilities for vulnerable populations (homeless and under-housed residents who are unable to self-isolate) in the Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) region.

  • Sex and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

    Sex and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

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  • Risk Mitigation in the Context of Duel Public Health Emergencies

    Risk Mitigation in the Context of Duel Public Health Emergencies

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    This guidance aims to support individuals who may be at increased risk of overdose, withdrawal, craving, and other harms related to their substance use. As the effects of the pandemic continue, the drug supply may become significantly more adulterated and toxic, based on limited importation and availability, and illicit substances may become significantly more diffcult to procure.

    Individuals seeking illicit substances to prevent withdrawal risk both overdose and exposure to and transmission of COVID-19. Individuals with unstable housing (those who are homeless or living in a shelter, single room occupancy (SRO), or supported housing unit) may face additional challenges physical distancing or self-isolating, in order to reduce community spread of COVID-19.