Safer Opioid Supply Outcomes

"Overall, the currently available evidence regarding health outcomes among safer opioid supply clients is generally favorable. Specifically, when reported, most studies found reductions (Brothers et al., 2022; Haines & O'Byrne, 2023a; Lew et al., 2022) or a lack of change (Gomes et al., 2022) in the occurrence of opioid toxicity events, along with a reduction in the frequency of unregulated opioid use among clients of safer opioid supply programs (Bardwell et al., 2023; Giang et al., 2023; Haines & O'Byrne, 2023a; Ivsins et al., 2020, 2022; McNeil et al., 2022). Other health outcomes were also shown to improve among safer opioid supply clients, including increased access to the healthcare system (Gomes et al., 2022; Kolla & Fajber, 2023; Kolla et al., 2021), infectious complications (Gomes et al., 2022), and improvements to clients’ mental health (Gomes et al., 2022; Haines et al., 2022; Kolla & Fajber, 2023; Kolla et al., 2021). Also, participants of qualitative studies expressed that safer opioid supply program participation improved their access to healthcare and other wraparound services (Foreman-Mackey et al., 2022; Giang et al., 2023; Haines & O'Byrne, 2023a; Ivsins et al., 2020; McMurchy & Palmer, 2022), allowing them to address health issues such as HIV and hepatitis C (Kolla et al., 2021). Additionally, safer opioid supply program clients and providers interviewed in qualitative studies expressed that safer opioid supply recipients were afforded a greater sense of stability as clients were less preoccupied with concerns related to drug procurement (Foreman-Mackey et al., 2022; Giang et al., 2023; Haines & O'Byrne, 2023a; Ivsins et al., 2020, 2022; McNeil et al., 2022), or engagement in criminal activity as a means of income generation for drug related purchases (Atkinson, 2023; Haines & O'Byrne, 2023a; Haines et al., 2022; Ivsins et al., 2020, 2021, 2022; Kolla et al., 2021; McNeil et al., 2022)."