An innovative approach to harm reduction
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An innovative approach to harm reduction: Addressing the neglected issue of pleasure
IRAS ID
142750
Contact name
Fay Dennis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine
Research summary
The proposed project will use a qualitative methodological approach to explore the role of pleasure in people’s practices of injecting drug use in order to inform more meaningful and engaging ways of reducing drug-related harm, such as, blood borne viruses and bacterial infections. Illicit drugs, especially those most commonly injected, such as heroin and crack cocaine, are physiologically intended to activate the brain’s reward system and yet pleasure is routinely overlooked in public health research on injecting drug use. By investigating this hidden aspect of injecting drug use we can start to build a more complete picture of why people inject drugs and, through this, inform strategies of harm reduction which are more meaningful and engaging to the users.
The primary method of data collection will be in-depth ‘creative’ interviews with 25-30 people who inject drugs. ‘Creative interviewing’ is an interview style which produces more than the narrative data, and here includes, the use of video elicitation and body-mapping, in order to access the embodied and relational experience of injecting drug use. Participants will be recruited through advertising in two London drug services, Camden CRI and Tower Hamlets CDT. Interviews will take place at these sites or at a private location approved by the researcher. In-depth interviews will also take place with 5-10 service providers in order to ascertain their views on injecting drug use,the potential role of pleasure and whether it could be utilised in harm reduction. The CI will also carry out 3-6 months participant observation at Tower Hamlets CDT,and visit other sites across London in order to contextualise the interview data, explore the role of pleasure and ascertain how it could be implemented in practice if found to be of importance.
REC name
London - Harrow Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/0184
Date of REC Opinion
10 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion