ArticleBMJ open2026
Harm reduction and pharmacy practice: a scoping review of services for people who use drugs provided by pharmacy staff.
Article in BMJ open, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Knowledge, attitudes and practices among Australian community pharmacists towards naloxone and overdose prevention: a national cross-sectional study.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThe roles of pharmacy staff have expanded to include public health functions, such as delivering harm reduction services for people who use drugs (PWUD), particularly unregulated substances and non-medical drug use, in response to an ongoing drug overdose crisis. Nonetheless, their involvement across the full spectrum of harm reduction services remains underexplored. This study mapped existing research describing or evaluating the implementation of harm reduction services for PWUD provided by pharmacy staff.
designScoping review. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus and Cochrane Library (inception to July 2025). STUDY SELECTION: Studies reporting on the description or evaluation of harm reduction services for PWUD provided by pharmacy staff. DATA EXTRACTION: Two team members screened studies for eligibility and extracted the data. The data were analysed primarily to describe harm reduction services and the role of pharmacy staff.
results43 articles were included. The most frequently reported harm reduction services were sexually transmitted and blood-borne infection care (33%), needle and syringe programmes (21%), naloxone distribution (19%) and medication treatment for opioid use disorder (19%). Pharmacy staff were integrated into multidisciplinary teams (79%), with their roles varying from education to medication prescribing. Included studies reported harm reduction services for PWUD delivered by pharmacy staff as effective, feasible and safe. However, implementations were not tailored to equity-deserving populations. Services primarily addressed opioid-related harms, while strategies focusing on the use of non-opioid substances were limited.
conclusionThis scoping review highlights the diverse roles pharmacy staff play in delivering harm reduction services for PWUD. Positioned at the intersection of accessibility and healthcare delivery, pharmacy staff are ideally situated to expand access to equitable care. To fully harness this potential, future research and practice should embed harm reduction as a core philosophy, extending beyond individual interventions to support the creation of person-centred, non-judgmental and low-barrier services.
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