Project bid to offer support to city’s drug users
GLASGOW drug users will be offered support in a bid to tackle the city’s continuing HIV outbreak.
Waverley Care’s HIV Street Support Project will work with people in the community to provide access to harm reduction education, HIV testing, and support to address issues such as homelessness, addiction and poor mental health.
The charity says that since the outbreak began in 2015, 133 people in Glasgow have been diagnosed with HIV, linked to injecting drug use – more than trebling the previous average of 10 per year. An estimated one in five people who regularly inject drugs in public places in the city centre are now living with HIV.
The Street Support Project, which is being funded by the Big Lottery Fund, will provide intensive, one-to-one support to engage with the most isolated people in this population, delivered by project workers, and a peer support worker with lived experience of addiction and recovery.
Claire Kofman, Waverley Care senior manager for Glasgow said: “Glasgow’s currently experiencing the biggest outbreak of HIV seen anywhere in the UK since the 1980s.
“Our project will take support directly to people on the street, making it as easy as possible for them to access HIV testing and treatment, along with information and advice.”