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. 2022;57(5):827-832.
doi: 10.1080/10826084.2022.2040031. Epub 2022 Feb 23.

Awareness, Utilization, and Preferences of Harm Reduction Interventions among Street-Involved Young Adults in Boston

Elizabeth A Noyes  1 , Spencer Dunleavy  2 , Victoria Mail  3 , Isabel Plakas  4 , Susan Keyes  4 , Jessie M Gaeta  4   5 , Aura Obando  1   4   6   7 , Elizabeth Paci  4 , Claudia Lent  8 , Craig Regis  9 , Elsie M Taveras  1   7   9 , Amy M Yule  3   10 , Avik Chatterjee  1   4   5
Affiliations

Awareness, Utilization, and Preferences of Harm Reduction Interventions among Street-Involved Young Adults in Boston

Elizabeth A Noyes et al. Subst Use Misuse. 2022.

Abstract

Objectives: This study explores knowledge and utilization of, barriers to, and preferences for harm reduction services among street-involved young adults (YA) in Boston, Massachusetts.

Methods: This cross-sectional survey of YA encountered between November and December 2019 by a longstanding outreach program for street-involved YA. We report descriptive statistics on participant-reported substance use, knowledge and utilization of harm reduction strategies, barriers to harm reduction services and treatment, and preferences for harm reduction service delivery.

Results: The 52 YA surveyed were on average 21.4 years old; 63.5% were male, and 44.2% were Black. Participants reported high past-week marijuana (80.8%) and alcohol (51.9%) use, and 15.4% endorsed opioid use and using needles to inject drugs in the past six months. Fifteen (28.8%) YA had heard of "harm reduction", and 17.3% reported participating in harm reduction services. The most common barriers to substance use disorder treatment were waitlists and cost. Participants suggested that harm reduction programs offer peer support (59.6%) and provide a variety of services including pre-exposure prophylaxis (42.3%) and sexually transmitted infection testing (61.5%) at flexible times and in different languages, including Spanish (61.5%) and Portuguese (17.3%).

Conclusions: There is need for comprehensive, YA-oriented harm reduction outreach geared toward marginalized YA and developed with YA input to reduce barriers, address gaps in awareness and knowledge of harm reduction, and make programs more relevant and inviting to YA.

Keywords: Harm reduction; opioid epidemic; opioid-related disorders; substance use; young adult.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest

Dr. Amy Yule currently receives NIH funding and is currently a consultant to the Gavin House and BayCove Human Services (clinical services). The other authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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