“The people who depended on us became expendable”: Experiences of frontline workers with lived and living expertise of drug use during the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, in concert with the toxic drug crisis, presented many challenges for working group members on the frontlines to continue their work providing essential services to people who use unregulated drugs in Canada. The experiences shared by this unique group demonstrate these challenges, as well as how the immediate and long-term impacts of these dual public health emergencies provided opportunities for innovating and advocating for sustainable policy changes.
Authors
- Alex Betsos
- Frank Crichlow
- Karen Turner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5278-6779)
- Jade Boyd (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7919-5995)
- Brandi Abele (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7744-3421)
- Matthew Bonn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6406-0171)
- Kelsey A. Speed (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5728-5209)
- Natasha Touesnard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6665-3851)
- Kat Gallant (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6779-0086)
- Michael Nurse
- Alexandra de Kiewit
- Alex Sherstobitoff
Institutions
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (US)
- British Columbia Centre on Substance Use (CA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Harm Reduction Journal
- Published
- 2025-05-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-025-01221-z
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Homelessness and Social Issues
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.82
Funders
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research