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Can you tell us about your involvement with CAHMA?

I am the Community Development Operations manager at CAHMA (Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy). I run a community development project which aims to provide new professional opportunities for people who use drugs and ATOD (alcohol, tobacco and other drugs) treatment – volunteering, mentoring, skilling up, casual work, supervision and further education. I am also in charge of student placements harm reduction trainings from the perspective of peer work, for ATOD professionals. In addition, I design health promotions and run campaigns at CAHMA.

Can you describe CAHMA efforts that have targeted women who use drugs in particular?

Over the course of the last few years, CAHMA run a few successful actions aimed at reaching women who use drugs (WUD) in Canberra. These actions were mainly inspired by WHRIN’s campaigns and opportunities they provided to raise awareness about specific issues experienced by WUD (eg WHRIN’s grants for Support Don’t Punish with a Focus on Women, and the Elimination of Violence Against Women who Use Drugs (EVAWUD) 16 Days of action. As a grantee for these inspiring campaigns, CAHMA organised:
a. The 2019 Support Don’t Punish with a Focus on Women campaign, with a special focus on the elimination of violence against women. An art exhibition was launched on 26th of June as CAHMA’s Global Day of Action event (“Wear Orange, Paint it Orange”). Many visitors attended the painting exhibition, read the artists’ stories and purchased artworks. All of the visitors had the opportunity to take photos in front of the “Orange wall’ specially decorated for this purpose. The popularity of the exhibition prompted us to take further action, so CAHMA invested in building a website where paintings are promoted and purchased. This has developed into a continuous action that is hugely empowering for CAHMA service users and staff, also attracting the attention of other alcohol and drug services and of the wider community. CAHMA now participate in Orange the World Action with Orange Art Group monthly meetings every 25th of the month, where we continue to create artworks and stories that help to combat stigma and discrimination against WUD.
b. As part of the SDP with a Focus on Women 2020 campaign, CAHMA’s weekly radio show News From The Drug War Front, invited its women listeners to send in personal stories themed around “Stop the war on women who use drugs, invest in harm reduction services that work for women!” involving:

  • examples from their life of how they experienced harmful influences of the war on people (women) who use drugs.
  • their suggestions of what gender sensitive services could minimise that harm and how. The action lasted for 8 weeks, each week two stories were be read by Marion Watson in the radio show, and each rewarded with $30. All stories were stored and made available to listen on in the Cloud, and were saved to be used as valid documentation in different CAHMA regular advocacy activities.
Read more:  Women & Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN) Statement (2019)

In November-December 2020, CAHMA participated in WHRIN’s Elimination of Violence Against Women who Use Drugs (EVAWUD) campaign with large number of activities exclusively designed for WUD:

  1. The Orange Room – a special room within the CAHMA drop-in space designated to be a “free from violence safe place” with the purpose not only to symbolize a refuge from violence but also a passage to a new life, space for self-exploration, self-expression and positive changes. Women used the room to meditate, relax, rest and self-express in artistic ways (painting, collage, storytelling or knitting orange scarves to wrap trees at the end of the campaign).
  2. A series of specific one-off activities such as: naloxone training, empowerment and self-esteem workshop, afternoon tea, domestic awareness session, Collage Art Therapy etc. many of which were organised in partnerships with other Canberra alcohol and other drug/harm reduction services.

The campaign ended with the Orange march and community event with a BBQ, yarn bombing trees and a self-defence class organised by community members. The campaign had a strong presence in social media (on every day of the campaign calls-to-action and campaign photos were shared) and in CAHMA’s radio show News From The Drug War Front. One of the participants of the CAHMA Orange art room made a video with artwork “Orange Lady” promoting the campaign. Over the many years of supporting women with ATOD issues it has become apparent that one of the systems that is most detrimental to the
health and wellbeing of WUD is the Child, Youth Protection Service (CYPS) system. CAHMA clients who are engaging with CYPS often find the experience extremely challenging, with few positive outcomes
for their children/family. This has been observed by CAHMA, especially over the past 2 years since the inception of our peer treatment support system which involved CAHMA workers attending appointments including CYPS appointments to advocate for the best outcomes for service users. As a result of this work and knowledge, CAHMA identified the need to establish a support group for WUD who are dealing with CYPS. The group had to be suspended because of the recent COVID lock down in Canberra, but will start its regular weekly gatherings in January 2022.

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Of these efforts, which do you think had the greatest impact (and why)?

They all resonated really well with the community and evolved into CAHMA permanent projects. If we have to choose one, that would probably be the 2020 EVAWUD campaign because of the wide range of different activities that involved a very diverse group of participants. Also the street march at the end of the campaign was a very powerful experience for all participants and made them feel very empowered and hopeful that something can be done in terms of sensitising the wider community about issues that WUD face in our society and world. Also, the fact that it was a worldwide campaign had a strong positive impact on all participants.

What skills do you think are essential in working with women who use drugs?

  • Harm reduction knowledge
  • Social justice awareness
  • Empathy, respect, appreciation
  • Good knowledge of identity politics, diversity, understanding of feminist theories, of the strategies of systemic oppression and good understanding of discrimination strategies
  • Lived experience and use of peer health education models in working with WUD
  • Person-centered approach, which means that those who work with WUD must suspend their ego in order control their urge to “fix” WUD and impose on them their own ideas and solutions
  • A huge ability to listen to the person, respect their choices and respond in the way that is acceptable to them
  • Understanding the difference between helping people and empowering them.

What would be your tips for other harm reduction service providers wishing to facilitate meaningful involvement of women who use drugs?

Our main tips come from the material we gathered through the SDP with a Focus on Women 2020 writing competition campaign; all services working with WUD should have (more) peer workers who experienced the same issues that WUD are dealing with. All services should create a more welcoming and friendly atmosphere for WUD, with open days for meeting the workers in a less official manner, with more health promotions, workshops and campaigns to raise awareness related to specific sets of problems and in particular the discrimination and marginalisation that WUD face every day. Employ more women, more women’s groups, more programs targeting specific issues of WUD, more community consultations and platforms for voices of WUD, more programs around childcare and parents who use drugs and more programs for domestic violence understanding and awareness.

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