The team works with people who use drugs and alcohol, supporting them with everything from harm reduction information and education, mental and physical health support including wound care, to support around housing, legal problems, and warm referrals into other services. Some people come to them through formal referrals, while others they meet on the streets of North Richmond.
The team’s approach, Ginny (Program Manager) explains, comes down to meeting people “where they stand” – working from a trauma-informed harm reduction perspective that recognises people “as the experts of their own lives.” While there isn’t always an ‘easy fix’, there’s always a next step, whether that’s working toward a goal together or assisting someone to find more appropriate or specialised support for their specific needs.
The importance of trust
Many of the people the team works with have faced trauma, judgment and stigma. Their previous interactions with other services and institutions have scarred them and created a distrust in health services. This disengagement means they are often wary of seeking support when they need it.
“You don’t know what someone’s life has been like,” Ginny says. “It is easy to judge based on what you see, which is the tip of the iceberg.”
The team want to remove these barriers and ensure people have equitable access into health systems and other critical social supports, also recognising that they can’t instantly jump into people’s lives with advice. Instead the team spends time building a trusting relationship with people, enabling them to feel safe to talk to the team about what they need. To do this the team builds relationships with people over time, ensuring they are consistent and transparent in their interactions.
What support the team provides
The AOD Outreach and Community Engagement team’s work is varied. Every day the team is out meeting people and building relationships and rapport; explaining the role of the team and the ways they can offer support. This can include offering material aid such as food and water, chatting about harm reduction, or connecting people with information or referrals. Even a quick ‘hello’ every day can build a relationship over time.
When people identify some needs and goals to the team, the team can offer ‘complex care coordination’. Like a traditional case management service, this involves helping people identify goals and ways to achieve them, coordinating the process and often connecting people up to other services and support for health, mental health, housing, legal and other social supports.
A crucial part of the team’s role is the work they do to support and engage with the broader community. This includes helping keep public spaces safer through daily sweeps to collect and safely dispose of syringes, responding to concerns raised by residents, businesses and other stakeholders, and ensuring there is open communication with the community at all times.
The critical role they play
The AOD Outreach and Community Engagement team are helping support vulnerable community members, many who have disengaged in mainstream support services and would fall through the cracks otherwise.
Their impact can be seen not only in the stories team members carry, but also in numbers. Since October 2023 the team recorded:
- 7,135 engagements with community members – including people who use drugs and alcohol, people living or working locally, and people who called for support
- 3,027 hours spent supporting people needing complex care coordination
- 16,244 syringes and discarded injecting equipment collected and safely disposed of
Unique proximity
NRCH’s AOD Outreach and Community Engagement team is the only AOD outreach service co-located with a Medically Supervised Injecting Room. That proximity means the team often coordinate care and support with the injecting room, enabling wrap-around care for vulnerable people in need of support.
How to connect with the team
The team operates seven days a week from 8:30am to 9:30pm. You don’t need to be a person using drugs, and you don’t need a referral, simply call us for a chat and we’ll do our best to listen to what you need.
You can reach our team by calling 1800 841 051 (between 8:30am – 9:30pm)
See the map below for the area our team covers:
For more information about the team and the important work they are doing, please see our dedicated AOD Outreach and Community Engagement Program page here.
