British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, 400-1045 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2A9, Canada.
Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, St. Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada.
BMC Womens Health. 2021 Feb 2;21(1):51. doi: 10.1186/s12905-021-01196-6.
North America is amidst an opioid overdose epidemic. In many settings, particularly Canada, the majority of overdose deaths occur indoors and impact structurally vulnerable people who use drugs alone, making targeted housing-based interventions a priority. Mobile applications have been developed that allow individuals to solicit help to prevent overdose death. We examine the experiences of women residents utilizing an overdose response button technology within a supportive housing environment.
In October 2019, we conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 14 residents of a women-only supportive housing building in an urban setting where the overdose response button technology was installed. Data was analyzed thematically and framed by theories of structural vulnerability.
While participants described the utility and disadvantages of the technology for overdose response, most participants, unexpectedly described alternate adoptions of the technology. Participants used the technology for other emergency situations (e.g., gender-based violence), rather than its intended purpose of overdose response.
Our findings highlight the limitations of current technologies while also demonstrating the clear need for housing-based emergency response interventions that address not just overdose risk but also gender-based violence. These need to be implemented alongside larger strategies to address structural vulnerabilities and provide greater agency to marginalized women who use drugs.
北美正处于阿片类药物过量流行之中。在许多环境中，特别是在加拿大，大多数过量死亡发生在室内，影响到独自使用毒品的结构脆弱人群，因此针对住房的干预措施成为当务之急。已经开发出了移动应用程序，允许个人寻求帮助以防止过量死亡。我们研究了在支持性住房环境中使用过量反应按钮技术的女性居民的体验。
2019 年 10 月，我们对一个城市中女性专用支持性住房楼内的 14 名居民进行了半结构化定性访谈，该楼内安装了过量反应按钮技术。数据通过主题分析和结构脆弱性理论进行了框架分析。
虽然参与者描述了该技术在应对过量反应方面的实用性和缺点，但大多数参与者出人意料地描述了对该技术的其他采用方式。参与者将该技术用于其他紧急情况（例如性别暴力），而不是其预期的过量反应目的。
我们的研究结果强调了当前技术的局限性，同时也表明迫切需要基于住房的紧急反应干预措施，不仅要解决过量风险，还要解决性别暴力问题。这些措施需要与解决结构脆弱性和赋予边缘化吸毒女性更大代理权的更大战略同时实施。
