Glasgow Opens UK’s First Safer Drug Consumption Facility
Glasgow have opened the first safer drug consumption facility (SDCF) in the UK in the hope that it will help addicts to consume drugs safely, seek support and more generally reduce the risk of blood-borne viruses.
The facility called The Thistle, which opened on Monday 13th January, will be based at the Hunter Street Health and Care Centre, and will operate daily from 9am to 9pm – all year round.
Following a large-scale outbreak of HIV in 2015 among people who inject drugs in Glasgow, the city have been asking for a SDCF. SDCF’s have been in operation across the world for decades, and evidence shows that these facilities can help to improve public health and tackle drug-related deaths.
Safer Drug Consumption Facilities
The facilities offer a clean, safe space for people to inject their own drugs that are obtained elsewhere (not provided or purchased on site), under clinical supervision and access to a wide range of treatment and support.
Staff offer people safer injection techniques and provide harm reduction advice to lower the risk of overdose as well as being there to intervene if a person does overdose.
The Thistle facility, piloted by Glasgow, opened this week and will be staffed by a skilled team made up of nurses, psychology, medical staff, social workers and harm reduction workers.
Credit: NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde
It is base on more than 100 similar facilities acros the world.
Some of the features at The Thistle (as found in Glasgow City Council’s article):
- Reception and waiting areas
- Private chat rooms
- Separate space with eight individual booths (two are wheelchair accessible, and have either left or right sidearms)
- A post-injection recovery area with trained staff
- An aftercare lounge area where users can interact with healthcare support staff (with lived experience) and representatives from a variety of support organisations
- Two health rooms, where users can access a range of treatments (including having any wounds looked at our Blood Borne Virus (BBV) testing undertaken
Quoted by Glasgow City Council, Lynn MacDonald, Service Manager at The Thistle, said:
We have sought to make The Thistle as welcoming as possible and a place where people feel safe and listened to. Staff have undergone significant training in trauma informed care and are ready to offer a compassionate, person-centred service with a focus on reducing the harms caused by injecting drugs and to help people access whatever support they need at the time.
Saket Priyadarshi, Associate Medical Director for Alcohol and Drug Services, added:
“We have strong evidence from other cities with similar problems that shows a SCDF in Glasgow could help prevent drug deaths, help stem the spread of HIV infection, reduce drug-related litter and significantly reduce costs in other health and social care services. It will provide a severely marginalised group access to the treatment and support they have been lacking for years. One of the aims of The Thistle is to support service users to engage with opportunities to improve their quality of life – housing, benefits, health. These are early but important steps into recovery.”
Next steps for The UK’s first safer drug consumption facility
Once the Glasgow facility was approved, the Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership began a thorough engagement exercise – which was the most extensive ever done in relation to a new service. Following this, there will also be a continued programme of community engagement during the months ahead.
Discussing the monitoring of the facility, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde website added:
‘The Thistle will be monitored and evaluated to demonstrate the impact it has on the local area and those who use the service. The evaluation will look at various aspects including litter levels, discarded needles, anti-social behaviour and crime.’
Councillor Allan Casey, City Convener for Workforce, Homelessness and Addiction Services, said:
We have been pushing for a safer drug consumption facility for some time. We know from other safer drug consumption rooms in operation across the world that they do make a difference – they do improve the lives of people struggling with addiction, as well as easing pressure on frontline emergency services.
We know this is not a silver bullet – but having a facility that is safe, hygienic and medically supervised will go a long way towards reducing drug-related overdoses, injection-related wounds and infections, and the negative impact that injecting outdoors has on local residents, communities and businesses. We know there are mixed views about having a SDCF, but I am confident we will see the benefits very quickly.
Councillor Casey added: “Giving people who use drugs the opportunity to consume in a calm, hygienic and supervised environment is essential in combating drug-related deaths and improving public health.”
Scottish Government have funded the facility
The Thistle is funded by the Scottish Government, who have committed to making up to £2.3 million available per annum for the development, set up and running of the SDCF in Glasgow from 2024/25.
