Peer Based Harm Reduction WA

Peer Based Harm Reduction WA (PBHR WA) is a peer-based consumer-led organisation that provides health and harm reduction services for people who use drugs. Established in 1996 by people who use drugs, PBHR WA (formerly known as WASUA) is run by and for people with personal experience of drug use, and is a part of the national network of Australian drug user organisations and a member of the Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL), the national peak body for peer-based drug user organisations. PBHR WA is the state’s largest Needle & Syringe Program (NSP) provider, operating fixed-site, mobile, and outreach (home delivery) needle & syringe exchanges (NSEPs) throughout the greater Perth Metropolitan Area and throughout the South West Region of Western Australia. In the Perth Metro Area and the South West Region, the organisation also provides peer education programs, an overdose prevention and take-home-naloxone (THN) project, and confidential Health Clinics (co-located within our NSEP sites and in Mobile Health Clinic Vans) which provide testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections and blood borne viruses. These areas contain roughly 85% of the states’ population. For people located outside of these regions, PBHR WA provides NSP and THN state-wide, via a postal delivery service. Peer Based Harm Reduction WA aims for an inclusive society where all voices are heard, and where people are treated with dignity and have equitable opportunities regardless of their choice to use drugs. To further this aim, we work to advance the health, dignity, and social justice of people who use drugs in Western Australia. Of necessity this involves attention to countering the stigmatisation of people who use drugs, and fighting the prejudice and discrimination that increase disadvantage and that create barriers to equitable access to services.