Hepatitis C, Alcohol and ORT What are the experiences of people using services? A presentation by Lorraine, Paul and Paul

Introducing Ourselves We are 3 people in recovery who volunteer with a range of services:  North East Recovery Community (NERC)  Naloxone Peer Educators  RENEW (Recovery Empowers North East Women)  Park Recovery Cafe  North East Recovery Day

What we are going to present: Using Peer Research What we wanted to find out Our Results Our Conclusions

Why Use Peer Research? “ The less distance there is between direct experience and its interpretation the more accurate, reliable and less distorted it is likely to be” (Beresford 2005) The peer research model helps to reduce the distance between direct experience and interpretation.

What did we want to find out? The aim was to survey people who have previously used drugs and alcohol and had been engaged with treatment services. We were looking at people’s experiences with alcohol and drug treatment services. We wanted to know if services addressed alcohol use and Hepatitis C.

What we did? Hepatitis Scotland created a survey on Ipads and trained us to use them. We then went to recovery cafes and services to ask people about their experiences. We think using the Ipads was better than pen and paper. People were happy to take part as it was relaxed, and they knew we were peers.

Our Results We completed 47 surveys 60% (28) male, 40% (19) female Average age was 43 The youngest was 27, the oldest was people lived in Glasgow City, 5 lived in Greater Glasgow or Lanarkshire, (3 did not answer)

History of IDU 25 people (out of 47) have experience of injecting the following substances:

ORT in the past 3 years 22 people have been prescribed ORT in the past 3 years Of those 22:  7 are currently prescribed Methadone  2 are currently prescribed Suboxone  6 are no longer using ORT  7 did not answer

22 people used a service in the past 3 years for ORT

Alcohol Use – Past 3 years 39 (out of 47) people had drank alcohol in the last 3 years

24 people used a service in the past 3 years for an alcohol problem

Hepatitis C 39 people have had a test for Hepatitis C Where were you last tested for Hepatitis C?

12 People have or have had Hepatitis C 6 have had treatment, 6 have not Treatment did not work for 3 people, treatment was successful for 2, and 1 person is awaiting their results. Of the 6 people who have not had treatment: 4 are waiting to start treatment. 1 has chosen not to do treatment.

Drinking Frequency and Hepatitis C Status

Some comments from participants: “I have had many difficult relationships with drugs. I have used various services in relation to my drug problem. I have found that most of these services were very helpful and helped move me forward.” “The help I received changed my life xx”

Some comments from participants: “I’ve recently joined a service and haven't been made aware of hep c services yet” “I’ve just started the service but I know they will test me in phase 3” “I was made aware of all support on hep c and alcohol in my service”

Our Thoughts We think that people in our communities do not link hepatitis c with alcohol. Some people, when stopping their drug use, do move onto alcohol use. When speaking to people, there were some who had been tested but not been made aware of their results.

Conclusion People using services for an alcohol problem should be tested for Hepatitis C The effects of alcohol on people living with hepatitis C should be made more accessible to people. We think testing should be offered earlier when people use services

Hepatitis Scotland 1 st Floor, 91 Mitchell Street, Glasgow, G1 3LN phone: facebook: Hepatitis-Scotland