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Training Guide

Overview of Supervised Consumption Services in the United States

SCS Models

What kinds of models are there for SCS?

Every community will have its own recommendation based on a variety of factors including existing infrastructure and programs, transportation, funding, where people buy and use drugs, privacy, access to physical space, and more.

 

Stand-alone fixed-site – similar to syringe access programs, stand-alone fixed sites are physical buildings typically set up with booths for drug use and/or rooms for inhalation and smoking with space for other services.

 

Photo of the main desk, hand washing stations, and dividers inside a safe injection site
Credit: MSIC

 

Integrated service – like a fixed site, injection or smoking services may be set up within an existing syringe access program but is a service integrated into an already existing organization.

 

photo of a safe injection facility. A long metal table is separated by metal dividers, each with a sharps container attached to it. Chairs are put at each station.
Credit: GPDCR

 

Mobile unit – offered in a mobile van setting with limited space for injection and other services, designed to be able to move and be in different communities where the services are needed.

 

Photo of the inside of a large vehicle used for mobile safe injection services in Montreal, Canada
Credit: GPDCR

 

Tent/pop-up – offered as a temporary or semi-permanent outdoor space that may be a tent, portable, or other covered space that can be flexible in particular to meet the needs of unhoused people.

 

A group of people inside of a pop-up safe consumption site in Vancouver. There are tables and chairs lining the walls and string lights hanging from the ceiling.
Credit: GPDCR

 

photo of the side of a building and a graffitied fence. The fence is open and inside is an easy-up tent, some chairs, and a person walking down the stairs of a modular unit that is used as a pop-up for harm reduction services.
Credit: GPDCR

 

Original Unsanctioned – people who use drugs have been creating unsanctioned safe spaces for decades to keep the community alive and continue to operate in houses, apartments, or other spaces with coordinated support.