“Painting the Full Picture”: A lens on the nuances behind 2SLGBTQIA+ youth substance use
Christian Barborini (left) and Trevor Goodyear (right) Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and other sexual and gender minority (2SLGBTQIA+) youth experience inequities in substance use. Research has historically emphasized the negative experiences and effects associated with using. Christian Barborini and Trevor Goodyear, two researchers from
Q & A with Michelle Bridgeman
The At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS – pronounced ‘Arise') began in 2005 at the BC Centre on Substance Use to bridge these gaps. The study evaluates programs and services through data based on the lived experiences of street-involved youth who use substances. The longitudinal cohort study includes over 1,000 street-involved youth
Driving Actionable Drug Policy Research: The At-Risk Youth Study Team
The ARYS team at the Granville office The drug poisoning crisis in British Columbia and Canada is having devastating effects on young people and their loved ones. Since an official public health emergency was declared in B.C. in April 2016, over 14,000 people, including over 1,800 young people under 30
Young people at the centre of the toxic drug poisoning crisis
Vancouver may be considered by many as the “best place” to live, but many young people living in the city are facing unprecedented challenges that are making their futures more precarious than ever. Hundreds of youth who call Vancouver home are standing at the intersection of a housing affordability crisis
All About Drug Checking (Part 3): Check’It! Peer-led Drug Checking at Mountainside Harm Reduction Society
Including people with lived and living experience in harm reduction services is an essential component to any interventions’ success, and drug checking is no exception. Mountainside Harm Reduction Society is an entirely peer-led organization that employs people with lived experience, or ‘peer workers’, to deliver low-barrier harm reduction services like
All About Drug Checking (Part 2): The Team and the Tech of Music Festivals
Summer time in British Columbia means the start of music festival season and one of the busiest times of year for drug checking. There were 735 samples checked at Bass Coast alone this year, according to the data collected in the database maintained by the BC Centre on Substance Use.
All About Drug Checking: The People Behind the Machines
In a job that’s part outreach, part technical, drug checking technicians play a pivotal role in community harm reduction. Community drug checking services started being offered in 2017 in response to the ongoing toxic drug crisis. Many community drug checking services in BC use a Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer in combination
“Youth who use drugs become adults who use drugs”
Vancouver and Lisbon, while worlds apart, are both boasted for their global leadership in innovating progressive harm reduction policies and services. A group of researchers from both cities partnered with a committee of young people who use drugs to share whether their respective cities were meeting young people’s needs in
Through their eyes: Listening to 2SLGBTQIA+ youth about their experiences with opioids
Youth have unique experiences with opioids and the myriad systems of care. That’s especially true for those who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+. Listening to those youth about their experiences with opioids can help inform how programs and services are designed to better support them. We spoke with Trevor Goodyear, a research
The growing need to adapt services to address the changing modes of drug consumption
Early this year, the BC Coroners Service released a report looking at mode of drug consumption and risk of fatal drug poisoning. The data confirmed what many have known for some time – the way people are consuming drugs is changing and services to support people who use drugs need
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