Percorrer por autor "Valente, Helena"
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- City-level drug policies in Portugal: the Covid-19 pandemic as an analyzer of harm reduction responsiveness in Porto and LisbonPublication . Pires, Cristiana Vale; Curado, Adriana; Fuertes, Ricardo; Carvalho, Maria Carmo; Valente, HelenaBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic health crisis and its potential implications for people who use drugs (PWUD) created permissive conditions toward social innovation and experimentation. Still, it also exposed gaps in harm reduction approaches. Harm reduction responsiveness was informed by the priorities defined at the local level, so it was not applied uniformly in different regions. This paper intends to contribute to the analysis of harm reduction responsiveness during the COVID-19 outbreak by comparing the adaptations and implementation of harm reduction and municipal services to support street-involved (SI) PWUD in two Portuguese cities– Porto and Lisbon. This study aims to shed light on the city-level implementation of drug policies in Portugal. Methods: This study is based on a comparative qualitative analysis based on the experiences of PWUD and Harm Reduction (HR) professionals regarding the implementation of harm reduction responses during the COVID-19 pandemic in Porto and Lisbon. The study is based on interviews with SI PWUD (n = 22, 12 in Porto and 10 in Lisbon) and online focus groups with harm reduction professionals (N = 12, 6 in Porto and 6 in Lisbon). Results: Harm reduction teams in Porto and Lisbon implemented contingency plans and proactive adaptations to respond to the pandemic-related emerging needs. However, the study revealed contrasting experiences in the city-level support to harm reduction and responsiveness to the impacts of COVID-19 among SI PWUD in Porto and Lisbon. There were relevant differences in the support they received from the City Council and the city-level responses implemented to support SI PWUD. While the approach in Porto was described as restrictive and zero-tolerance towards drug use, Lisbon´s strategy was harm reduction-focused and inclusive. The study participants revealed better results in Lisbon regarding the harm reduction responsiveness to the pandemic health crisis and the accessibility and adherence of SI PWUD to services. Conclusion: The pandemic constraints and adaptations must be contextualized in the ongoing city-level debates regarding drug policies and harm reduction in Portugal. Moreover, city-level drug policies and local support are crucial to map the opportunities and challenges of implementing the Portuguese Drug Decriminalization Model in different contexts.
- Community-based full-spectrum harm reduction approaches when caring for psychoactive- and psychedelic-related problems in a transformational festivalPublication . Carvalho, Maria Carmo; Pires, Cristiana Vale; Costa, Ana Luísa; Martins, Daniel; Valente, Helena; Macedo, Inês; Frango, Paula; Lira, RaquelKosmicare Association is an NGO based in Portugal created in 2016 and born out of Boom Festival that works to transform nightlife culture through humanistic, comprehensive and evidence-based interventions and policies that capacitate nightlife governance and offer psychedelic harm reduction, outreach work, drug checking, information, training and good practice exchange. Helena Valente, Daniel Martins, Cristiana Vale Pires, Inês Macedo, Ana Luísa Costa, Raquel Lira and Maria Carmo Carvalho are founding members of the Kosmicare Association. They have been working for many years in harm reduction in several problematic and recreational drug use environments, as project coordinators and drug checking professionals. They have been involved in the coordination of the integrated harm reduction services at Boom Festival - Portugal. Maria Carmo Carvalho, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist. Cristiana Pires, PhD is a psychologist and anthropologist. Inês Macedo, MD is a psychiatrist. Helena Valente and Ana Luísa Costa are psychologists and PhD candidates at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto. Daniel Martins is a chemist and PhD candidate at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto. Raquel Lira is a psychologist with a Masters in Psychology of Justice and Deviance. Paula Frango is a psychologist and social worker with a MSc in Education working the Portuguese Government.
- Evaluation of a drug checking service at a large scale electronic music festival in PortugalPublication . Valente, Helena; Martins, Daniel; Carvalho, Helena; Pires, Cristiana Vale; Carvalho, Maria Carmo; Pinto, Marta; Barratt, Monica J.Background: Drug checking services are being implemented in recreational settings across the world, however these projects are frequently accused of a lack of evidence concerning their impact on people who use drugs. This paper describes the implementation of a drug checking service at the Boom Festival 2016 and explores the impact of this service on its users’ behavioural intentions.Methods: 753 drug samples were submitted to the drug checking service for chemical analysis. All drug checking users were invited to fill a pre-analysis and a post-analysis questionnaire. 310 pre- and post-analysis questionnaires answered by users of the service were successfully matched. Results: When the test results were “unexpected” (N=86), 94.3% of the service users reported that they would not to take the drug. When the test result indicated the sample contained “the expected substance plus adulterants” (N=41) 32% of users stated they would not take it. When the test result was “only the expecte substance” (N=370), as anticipated, 98% of the participants reported they would take it. There was a statistically significant association between users’ behavioural intentions and drug‐checking result (χ2(2)=350,042, p < .001). Conclusions: These results support the hypothesis that providing drug checking services in large-scale festivals helps users to better manage their drug use and deal with drug adulteration. The data corroborates the supposition that when provided with objective information about the content of their drugs, some users consider health protecting behaviours. Additionally, these results can contribute to the design of tailored harm reduction interventions that take into consideration clients’ characteristics, profiles and motivations.