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Setting up an area for yourself to inject will help protect you from being exposed to hep C.

Injecting is often a social thing. You may score and inject with others. But setting up your own ‘safe space’ to inject in will help protect you, and anyone you are with, from accidentally sharing any of the things that can spread hep C (like filters, water, fits, etc.).

To set up a safe space to prepare your shot and inject:

  • wash your hands with soap and water;
     
  • find a clean area with enough space to mix up in;
     
  • lay out some paper on the mixing area to mark out your space;
     
  • bring everything you need into your space - a sterile fit, sterile water, filter,
    tourniquets, spoons, mix bags, etc.; and
     
  • make sure no one else touches anything in your space.

When you’re done:

  • after your shot, flush your syringe with cold water and shoot it down the sink;
     
  • dispose of your used injecting equipment in a rigid-walled, puncture-resistant
    sealed container straight away;
     
  • dispose of the paper that marked your safe space in a doubled plastic bag
    and then place it in your rubbish bin; and
     
  • wash your hands with soap and water.

In Queensland, for further information on safer injecting contact the Alcohol and Drug Information Service on (07) 3236 2414 or regional freecall on 1800 177 833.

Below is the information the briefing paper gives to pharmacists to support the text on the calendar card.
It will hopefully be of interest both to professionals and injecting drug users.

The development of the idea of a ‘safe space’ for injecting has grown from the realisation that although the simple message ‘do not share syringes’ has been adequate to prevent the HIV epidemic, it is not strong enough to reduce prevalence of hep C.

There are two reasons for this. Firstly more injectors have hep C (because it has been endemic amongst injectors since long before needle and syringe provision was introduced), and secondly because the virus may be more resilient (and able to live outside the body in particles of blood) than HIV.

The fact that it is more prevalent makes transmission of hep C more likely than HIV transmission simply because it is more likely that one of the parties involved in a risk behaviour will be a carrier of the virus.

The idea for the intervention was developed by IDUs who recognised that for many, injecting is a social activity. The reality of this is, that where a number of injectors are in a room taking drugs together there is a lot of scope for inadvertent sharing of contaminated items, particularly spoons, water and filters.

The intervention seeks to harness the fact that preparing a drug for injection is, for many, a ritualistic behaviour. This means that if injectors can be persuaded to make a change in their injecting practice in order to reduce harm, it is likely to be a lasting change.

The safe space campaign seeks to reduce the risk of sharing any items involved in the preparation of drugs by promoting the incorporation of careful handwashing, and then the ‘marking out’ of a space with some sheets of paper and bringing everything needed to prepare the drugs on to the paper, ready to begin preparation.

Key intervention points
Reinforcing the written information on the card with questions like “have you seen this idea of safe space before?” - responding to a “no” with a brief explanation and a “yes” with an enquiry as to what they think of the idea, or whether they have adopted the practice, will act as a useful reinforcer.

In discussions with injectors, the key messages to get across are:

  • wash your hands and the injecting site as the first stage of preparation;
     
  • mark out your clean area with magazine sheets or newspaper; and
     
  • bring all of your own equipment to the safe space, including filters, spoons
    and mixing water as well as the needle and syringe.

 

Further reading
Australian IV League. (2000). Safer Injecting. Woden, ACT: AIVL.

Derricott, J., Preston, A. & Hunt, N. (1999). The Safer Injecting Briefing: An easy to use comprehensive reference guide to promoting safer injecting. Liverpool: HIT.

Preston, A., Byrne, J. & Derricott, J. (2000). The Safer Injecting Handbook. Melbourne: Australian Drug Foundation.

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