New report on the HSE Safer Nightlife Programme 2022

The HSE National Social Incllusion Office has published volunteer feedback on the provision of harm reduction outreach at Irish festivals as part of their review of the HSE Safer Nightlife Programme in 2022.

Download the report here

About the HSE Safer Nightlife Programme

In response to an identified service gap in this area, the HSE National Social Inclusion Office launched a multi-component programme in May 2022 to engage with people who use drugs specifically in festival settings. This approach involved a media campaign, the development of resources, recruiting and training volunteers and coordinating outreach teams at three specific events, Life Festival, Indiependence (Indie) and Electric Picnic Festival iin 2022.

The aim of the programme was to engage with and support festival attendees in a non-judgemental way on the topic of substance use and related issues that emerge in nightlife spaces.The programme was based on a harm reduction ethos to support people to implement practical steps to reduce drug-related harms.

The Volunteer Programme

The foundation of the HSE Safer Nightlife Campaign was the development of a volunteer outreach programme. It was central to the programme to ensure direct engagement with people who use drugs, given the known limitations of mass media campaigns.

The aim of this new programme was to engage with professionals currently working across substance use, community, youth and other relevant areas as well as students, peers and nightlife representatives to develop diverse teams which could support the establishment of services within festival settings.

Volunteer Training

Three separate training days were delivered online throughout the festival season in 2022. The overall aim of training programme was to ensure that the HSE provided standardised outreach teams for three events, starting with Life Festival in May.

It was central to the training to convey the importance of socio-cultural influence to understand behaviours and patterns of use when responding in festival settings. Based on an evidence review and local research, the Safer Nightlife Campaign and volunteer training programme were based on the specific needs of nightlife populations and subcultural groups, with an aim to remove barriers to health services and engage from a harm minimisation perspective. This area had been extensively reviewed by the HSE National Social Inclusion Office and the Emergency Drug Trends and Drug Checking Working Group with these reviews utilised to inform the direction of the approach

The learning objectives for the participants of the training programme were to:

Describe different types of drugs and the impact the different drugs have on a person including the risks associated with drug use in the festival environment
Recognise and respond to the signs of overdose
Deliver harm reduction information
Deliver an adapted form brief intervention suited to festival settings
Recognise health and mental health difficulties and make appropriate referrals to on-site medics
Communicate effectively with on-site medics and other team members
Record and report on key information on interactions
Demonstrate professional behaviour as a volunteer representative of HSE/drugs.ie