ArticleHarm reduction journal2018
"They accept me, because I was one of them": formative qualitative research supporting the feasibility of peer-led outreach for people who use drugs in Dakar, Senegal.
Article in Harm reduction journal, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- The HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis continuum of care among women who inject drugs: A systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Non-Medical Opioid Use in Ethiopia: An Exploratory Descriptive Study.Ethiopian journal of health sciences · 2026Article
- Transforming community health advocates into peer interventionists: a binational harm reduction model.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Package of interventions for harm reduction among women who inject drugs in Nigeria.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- "Sharing is my only option": an ethnographic analysis of the underlying contexts of needle and syringe sharing among people who inject drugs using the socio-ecological framework.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- A qualitative exploration of harm reduction in practice by street-based peer outreach workers.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- A Collaborative Approach to Understanding the Intersections of Practice and Policy for Peers in the Alcohol and Other Drugs Sector.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- "Take services to the people": strategies to optimize uptake of PrEP and harm reduction services among people who inject drugs in Uganda.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2024Article
- Article
- Hidden populations: risk behaviours in drug-using populations in the Republic of Georgia through subsequent peer-driven interventions.Harm reduction journal · 2021Article
- "An undercover problem in the Muslim community": A qualitative study of imams' perspectives on substance use.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2021Article
- Peer driven or driven peers? A rapid review of peer involvement of people who use drugs in HIV and harm reduction services in low- and middle-income countries.Harm reduction journal · 2021Review
- Peer-assisted injection as a harm reduction measure in a supervised consumption service: a qualitative study of client experiences.Harm reduction journal · 2021Article
- Exploring the Perceived Risks and Benefits of Heroin Use among Young People (18-24 Years) in Mauritius: Economic Insights from an Exploratory Qualitative Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Social network support and harm reduction activities in a peer researcher-led pilot study, British Columbia, Canada.Harm reduction journal · 2020Article
- The Opioid Epidemic in Africa And Its Impact.Current addiction reports · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPeer outreach harm reduction initiatives are being developed with and for people who use drugs in Dakar, Senegal. This is in response to growing injecting drug use across the West Africa region and linked emerging epidemics of HIV and hepatitis C. We undertook formative qualitative research to explore the feasibility and potential of peer outreach in this context and in particular how outreach could be linked to fostering community-level processes of change.
methodsWe undertook a total of 44 semi-structured qualitative interviews. Thirty-four interviews were with people who used drugs (comprised of 25 participants who had injected at least once in their life) and included 11 peer educators who delivered "awareness-raising" harm reduction activities. We also interviewed 10 service providers involved in the planning and monitoring of peer outreach initiatives. We used thematic analysis to identify key characteristics of how peer-led outreach is being delivered, beneficiary need, and the nature of the social networks in which the awareness-raising activities operate.
resultsThrough interviews with peer educators, people who use drugs, and service providers, four main overlapping themes are identified as follows: peer educators as a bridge to responsibilization through awareness-raising activities, awareness-raising activities as an enactment of recovery, awareness raising through social network diffusion, and the contexts and constraints of peer outreach engagement through awareness-raising activities.
conclusionsThe study results suggest that peer education is on a trajectory to develop into a central role for harm reduction interventions in Dakar, Senegal. This research shows how peer education is bound in processes of responsibilization and self-change, which link to varying possibilities for risk reduction or recovery. For peer education to achieve a range of significant goals, broader structural and system changes should be implemented in the region. We caution that without such changes, awareness-raising activities and the role of peer educators may instead become part of state- and agency-sponsored processes of seeking to responsibilize individuals for health and harm reduction.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.