Tailored Harm Reduction Approaches:

Bringing health care and social support to women drug users in

Georgia

Janna Ataiants, Nino Janashia, Ketevan Bidzinashvili, Dali Usharidze, Tea Akhobadze, Olga Rychkova

International Harm Reduction Development Program, OSI, New York

Making harm reduction work for women:

• Barriers to access harm reduction services• Attracting and retaining women clients• Outcomes of the gender-sensitive programs• Challenges and recommendations

While drug use remains to be the main driver of HIV epidemic in Eurasia, Georgia has one of highest adult population prevalence rates of injecting drug use in the world at

4,19%1

1 The Global State of Harm Reduction 2010, IHRA

Estimated 20% of all drug users in Georgia are women2

2 Expert Estimate, data provided by NGO New Way, Tbilisi

In Georgia, despite the high percentage of women drug users whose sexual partners were themselves using drugs, more than

four in five women had not been tested for HIV3.

3 Women, Harm Reduction and HIV: Key findings from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, IHRD, 2009

Stigma:

“It is always more difficult for a woman, she cannot trust anyone, especially if she has a husband – it is a small town, and then you get problems in the family if they find out”.

- Anna, client of a harm reduction program, Zugdidi, 2010

Male partners

“What kind of treatment can you offer to a woman who uses drugs? She does not deserve to live”.

- Male client of a harm reduction program, Gori, 2007

Access to health

“It is true, normally we do not go to a doctor voluntarily, we are brought to a doctor at the very last moment. I was sure the doctor will tell me something terrible, so I thought better avoid going all together. But the project made an appointment for me and it was not that bad. It was not too late yet. First time that I ever went to see a women’s doctor”.

- Interview with a women’s project client, 2010

Building trust: Establishing relationship first, harm reduction second

“Drugs – this is my biggest problem and my biggest complex. And this is the only place where I can openly talk about it”.

- Interview with a women’s project client, 2010

Safe space

“First time when I came here, I was really so much afraid, I was afraid even to walk in. But they [the staff] were so warm and understanding. I walked out a different person”.

- Interview with a women’s project client, 2010

“I personally never used Narcan, but I always take it for them [her partner and his friends]. I have 100% certain information that Narcan has really helped someone”

- Interview with a women’s project client, 2010

Naloxone and secondary exchange

• Tenfold increase in the number of women clients

• Greater awareness of risky practices and prevention strategies

• Access to HIV and HCV testing: 2% women tested positive for HIV and 25% - for HCV

• Access to health care, including SRH 10 pregnant women referred to PMTCT and antenatal care• Outreach to the community

Outcomes

Recommendations

• Strengthen connections between harm reduction and women’s shelters

• Reaching out to other women’s rights groups

• Advocate for gender-sensitive drug treatment and OST options