Enhancing Harm Reduction: A Qualitative Evaluation of Athens' Drug Consumption Room

Drug Consumption Rooms (DCRs) have become integral to public health systems in over 17 countries including in Greece, where in March 2022 the city of Athens opened the country’s first legally sanctioned site. Since its opening, no qualitative research has been done into the experiences of people accessing the site, or with the community of people who to inject drugs in street-based settings locally.

The aim of this study was to capture those experiences as a way of assessing and improving upon the DCR’s operational policies and practices, as well as informing the future implementation of DCR’s in other contexts.

Employing a participatory rapid-ethnographic approach, this study collected data through an initial 5 weeks of ethnographic observation, followed by 1 community consultation, 5 focus groups with DCR clients, 12 interviews with staff and 25 interviews with people who use drugs locally who do not access the DCR. Data was collected by two graduate students as well as a local peer researcher and coordinator of PeerNUPS the greek drug user representing organisation. 

Findings suggest those who regularly attend the DCR experience many of the positive benefits described within the existing literature, however, certain barriers remain which could be overcome to increase access and utilization of the service. This project highlights the value is using the opinions, attitudes, and lived experiences of DCR clients, as well as potential clients to inform the design of services.