Entre santé et sécurité, le point de vue des usagers de la Salle de Consommation à Moindre Risque de Liège [Between health and safety, the views of users of the Drug Consumption Room in Liège]

Russanowski, Géraldine;Nicaise, Pablo
(2023) Acta Psychiatrica Belgica — Vol. 123, n° 2, p. 17-23 (2023)

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(en) A Drug Consumption Room (DCR) is a public health facility offering a non-judgemental and hygienic environment to highly marginalised drug users for a safe drug use. It is, therefore, a harm reduction and public nuisance reduction setting aiming to improve public health and safety. Although these facilities are formally illegal in Belgium, a DCR was established in Liège in 2018. This article presents the results of the analysis of interviews carried out in 2020 with 6 users of the DCR. The users' experience illustrates that the facility has an action on their health but also on their own security feeling, which also improves the sanitary conditions of consumption. Users also report effects that the Room has on their behaviour outside the facility and the influence it has on users who do not attend the DCR. The cornerstone of the setting is the social and health team. These are the first results published about the DCR in Liège. They indicate that the effects of DCRs in terms of health and safety are intertwined and go beyond the facility. Results also show that the DCR in Liège reaches out a highly marginalised population that is globally excluded from healthcare, and that it acts on public safety, which are actually the aims of this type of facility.
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Russanowski, G., & Nicaise, P. (2023). Entre santé et sécurité, le point de vue des usagers de la Salle de Consommation à Moindre Risque de Liège [Between health and safety, the views of users of the Drug Consumption Room in Liège]. Acta Psychiatrica Belgica, 123(2), 17-23. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/24985 (Original work published 2023)