ID: HR19-1405

Presenting author: ORIOL SEGOVIA MINGUET

Presenting author biography:

Oriol Segovia is a Social Educator, specialized in non-profit management and applied ethics. Currently studding the doctorate program in the Ramón-Llull University.

New challenges in harm reduction: Canine education as a tool for dealing with users of Drug Consumption Rooms and dog owners in the city of Barcelona (Spain).

ORIOL SEGOVIA MINGUET, PENÉLOPE AGUILERA MARTÍNEZ

Drug users, who live without home and are owners of dogs, who go to the harm reduction centers of Barcelona suffer from the exclusion of services that attends to drug addiction, for not admitting the dog as a further element that configures their life projects.
This phenomenon needs to be analyzed to promote specific interventions that respond to this population.
A qualitative methodology was carried out, through the ethnographic study of the situation, of descriptive design, with content analysis through field notes and semi-structured interviews with users.
The results identified as common characteristics: difficulty of adherence to the harm reduction services of drug users and dog owners; the dog is an element that brings emotional benefits, in the self-esteem and in the social development to the owner; In contrast, there is a lack of tools and structures for the management of dogs by professionals and institutions that deal with this problem.
The findings show the need to incorporate canine education as a tool and professional competence that trains the services and their teams towards a more integral and integrating care, taking into account all the circumstances that make up the life project of the people who use drugs.

Keywords:
#Human Pet Bonding #Drug Users #Patient Centered Care #Homelessness #Harm Reduction