ArticleThe International journal on drug policy2021
Essential work, precarious labour: The need for safer and equitable harm reduction work in the era of COVID-19.
Article in The International journal on drug policy, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond "Peer Worker": Centering Experiential Expertise Within Interprofessional Mental Health Teams.Nursing & health sciences · 2026Article
- Stress first aid for the harm reduction workforce: pilot test results of an occupational stress intervention.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Article
- "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.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- The impact of Covid-19 on harm reduction policies in Iran: an interrupted time series analysis.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on supervised consumption service delivery in Vancouver and Surrey, Canada from the perspective of service providers.Discover public health · 2025Article
- An implementation science study of a campus-based drug checking service at a Canadian university.PloS one · 2025Article
- Characterizing the Use of Healthcare Access Supports Among People Who Use Drugs in Vancouver, Canada, 2017 to 2020: A Cohort Study.Substance use & addiction journal · 2024Article
- The Health and Safety Experiences of Precariously Employed Bangladeshi Immigrant Workers in Toronto During the COVID-19 Pandemic.New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS · 2024Article
- Changes in harm reduction service providers professional quality of life during dual public health emergencies in Canada.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- Addressing overdose risks and fatalities in public bathrooms: insights from the development of a Safer Bathroom Toolkit in British Columbia, Canada.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2023Review
- "It's starting to weigh on me": Exploring the Experiences and Support Needs of Harm Reduction Staff in Connecticut using the Social-Ecological Model.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- "We just don't have the space for it": Geographies of survival and spatial triage in overdose prevention sites.Health & place · 2023Article
- "The new normal has become a nonstop crisis": a qualitative study of burnout among Philadelphia's harm reduction and substance use disorder treatment workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- Between Care and Control: Examining Surveillance Practices in Harm Reduction.Contemporary drug problems · 2023Article
- Cohort Profile: The Assessing Economic Transitions (ASSET) Study-A Community-Based Mixed-Methods Study of Economic Engagement among Inner-City Residents.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Article
- "We have to be uncomfortable and creative": Reflections on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on overdose prevention, harm reduction & homelessness advocacy in Philadelphia.SSM. Qualitative research in health · 2021Article
- Strategies Adopted by Addiction Facilities during the Coronavirus Pandemic to Support Treatment for Individuals in Recovery or Struggling with a Substance Use Disorder: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Ingenuity and resiliency of syringe service programs on the front lines of the opioid overdose and COVID-19 crises.Translational research : the journal of laboratory and clinical medicine · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
This commentary highlights labour concerns and inequities within the harm reduction sector that hinder programs' ability to respond to converging public health emergencies (the overdose crisis and COVID-19), and potentially contribute to spread of the novel coronavirus. Many harm reduction programs continue to support people who use illicit drugs (PWUD) during the pandemic, yet PWUD working in harm reduction programs (sometimes termed 'peers') experience precarious labour conditions characterized by low wages, minimal employee benefits (such as paid sick leave) and high employment insecurity. Along with precarious labour conditions, PWUD face heightened vulnerabilities to COVID-19 and yet have been largely overlooked in global response to the pandemic. Operating under conditions of economic and legal precarity, harm reduction programs' reliance on precarious labour (e.g. on-call, temporary and unpaid work) renders some services vulnerable to staffing shortages and service disruptions during the pandemic, while also heightening the risk of virus transmission among workers, service users and their communities. We call for immediate policy and programmatic actions to strengthen working conditions within these settings with a priority on enhancing protections and supports for workers in peer roles.
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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.