Hackney Hub work featured in Drink and Drugs News

December 5, 2024

Drink and Drugs News (DDN) have featured an article exploring the launch and progress of our Hackney Harm Reduction Hub with The Hepatitis C Trust this year, with accounts from staff and volunteers and a look at innovations and challenges.

Drug harm continues to be a significant problem in the UK, with 19 per cent of people who inject sharing needles, according to the most recent Unlinked Anonymous Monitoring (UAM) report from the UK Health Security Agency. Drug-poisoning deaths have hit the highest level in 30 years, fuelled by a 30 per cent rise in fatalities involving cocaine and the introduction of synthetic opioids such as nitazenes into the drug supply (DDN, November, page 4).

For the London Borough of Hackney, an area with a diverse population and pockets of severe need, these issues mean that not only is investment in harm reduction services vital – so is innovation in how they work. This has led to the creation of the Hackney Harm Reduction Hub this year.

You can read the article here.

DDN’s December-January edition also features a look at the wider need for harm reduction from Buff Cameron, Deb Hussey, Jon Findlay, Peter Furlong, Chris Rintoul, Maddie O’Hare and Lucy O’Hare, which mentions the Hackney Harm Reduction Hub and the separate drop-in service run by Release.

Release have shown leadership in the opening of their harm reduction hub, and the peer-led approach to NSP in Hackney by the London Joint Working Group on Substance Use and Hepatitis C are good examples of activism in action. Enhanced harm reduction hubs unattached to treatment services could offer drug checking, a safe consumption space, and accessibility for marginalised groups such as women, sex workers, and homeless people.

You can read it here.