Report On The Needs Of People Who Use Drugs In Pima County

Abstract

The purpose of this report was to identify key unmet needs of people who use drugs (PWUD) in Pima County. Barriers may be identified in the context of achieving a goal of sobriety, or simply improving the overall health and wellbeing of PWUD without requiring abstinence. These recommendations are intended to be taken into consideration as the Pima County Health Department and Healthy Pima conduct their next Community Health Needs Assessment. Drug use is highly stigmatized and traditional public health approaches to identify, engage with, and respond to the health needs of this population are often insufficient. A review of literature and a series of key informant interviews resulted in the following three recommendations. (1) To educate healthcare personnel on stigma reduction and harm reduction practices and consider establishing programming in these setting to serve the health needs of PWUD; (2) To increase public health surveillance of drug use and broaden health promotion services for PWUD; and (3) To work towards restorative public health based responses to drug use while providing PWUD with alternatives to incarceration. The recommendations set forth are understood to be realistic and achievable measures that could be instituted at a county level.