Harm reduction and blood-borne virus prevention are inextricably linked. We can’t have the second without the first. Peer workers from Hepatitis SA’s harm reduction peer services (SAhrps) are working to bring that awareness to regional South Australia.
SAhrps has developed a harm reduction training package for regional workforce, together with a brief intervention strategy for community members, to be delivered by staff with lived/living experience of both hepatitis C and drug use.
This was in response to requests from regional service providers for workforce development in harm reduction. The two-pronged approach recognises that blood borne virus prevention and harm reduction are intertwined.
The workforce component of the training supports regional staff to engage with the drug-using community. Topics include how to overcome barriers to engagement, harm reduction in practice to prevent BBV transmission and improving health outcomes for people who use/inject drugs.
To increase community engagement, unique goody bags of resources and treats handed out, together with a small gift card for cost reimbursement. These ‘goody bags’ included BBV prevention resources, harm reduction information and drug use paraphernalia such as tourniquets to support single-person ownership and reduce the transmission risk of arising from sharing.
In developing the community brief intervention component, peer workers from Hepatitis SA liaised with local service providers to gain an understanding of issues specific to people who use/inject drugs in those regions.
…they found the shared personal experiences valuable and informative…
Between February and July, workshops and community interventions were delivered at Murray Bridge, Port Lincoln, Port Pirie, Berri, Mount Gambier and Port Augusta. At Port Augusta, point-of-care hepatitis C testing done by a peer worker, was also offered at the Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Council’s Stepping Stone service.
These SA workshops were funded by the federal government, delivered to state and territories via Hepatitis Australia’s HepLink program.
SAhrps Project Officer, Fiona Poeder, said “Outreach to regional communities has shown to be popular and meeting demand for services where in-services are limited or non-existent.
“We have people telling us they will send more staff to register for these workshops if we were to run them again… they found the shared personal experiences valuable and informative.”
Last updated 11 February 2026
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