10-07-2025
Needle exchange ‘saved' life
A worried drug user says a Dunedin needle-exchange service in line for the axe has saved her life more than once.
It comes after the Otago Daily Times revealed the Dunedin branch of the DISC Trust was among those which have lost the contract to administer the free needle-exchange programme for intravenous drug users.
It had held the contract since 1988 when the government rolled out the programme.
Staff and support workers at the Dunedin branch were either ex-users or had strong ties to the community, meaning they operated a fully "peer-based" approach to harm reduction and support.
There are fears the new service will not fully replicate that approach.
A client, who declined to be named, credited the organisation with saving her from "certain death", providing health advice and refuge from a toxic relationship.
"Not all of us are junkies, I've always been able to hold down a job. I've got a business degree.
"I have used the service for the past decade, but in the past five years, they've saved my life more than once. Without them, I would be dead."
She felt "incredibly sad" for the staff at the Dunedin branch, who "really understood" her.
"They're the ones that I turn to because they listen, and they don't interrupt you when you're talking to them.
"They listen, and they offer self-advice, and they're just there for you whenever you need them.
"I don't understand ... I mean, what's going to happen to us as a community?"
She said the fact the service had an on-call GP was a literal lifesaver.
"He could have just written a prescription for a month and then not even thought about me again. But he refused to do that.
"I was waiting to get into rehab and they rang me every week to make sure I was all right and everything."
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) Starting Well programme director Deborah Woodley said HNZ conducted an open procurement process for the delivery of regional needle-exchange and harm-reduction services.
"The request for proposal [RFP] for regional needle-exchange and harm-reduction services clearly outlined the requirements for service delivery including that people with lived and living experience have significant roles in the design, delivery and leadership of the programme," she said.
"An evaluation panel, with representatives from Hauora Māori services, lived experience, policy, population health, mental health and addictions and national commissioning, evaluated proposals and made recommendations for preferred providers of regional services which were accepted by Health New Zealand."
A worker at DISC's Dunedin branch, who asked not to be named, was "highly sceptical" about HNZ's response.
"As far as we workers understand, the provision for lived and living experience in the RFP has been a box-ticking exercise.
"The RFP asked for 'input' from those with lived and living experience: in our experience, asking for input is shorthand for asking for a non-actionable and dismissable statement from a group of people with real experience whose feedback they plan to ignore and certainly not take seriously."
University of Otago (Christchurch) department of public health senior lecturer Dr Rose Crossin said it was important the right support models were in place.
"The needle exchanges work because they're so trusted by their clients and that trust builds over a really long period of time.
"It isn't just about providing sterile injecting equipment.
"That's great, and it's absolutely important that clients of the needle exchange have access to sterile injecting equipment, but it is that holistic care.
"It's about being able to go somewhere where you don't feel judged and you don't feel afraid."
New Zealand Needle Exchange Programme executive director Philippa Jones said the DISC Trust discovered it had lost the contract on June 16.
"The current contract is $1.4 million for the South Island.
"The new contract funding was reduced to $1m.
"We don't know anything about the new providers' service delivery model or locations.
"We are not aware of the proposed staffing model and whether people with lived and living experience of injecting drug use will be employed to deliver the service.
"Naturally, our clients are deeply concerned and worried.
"After more than 35 years of delivering this specialist service, we were surprised by the decision."
An HNZ spokeswoman said funding for the regional delivery of needle-exchange and harm-reduction services had been allocated based on population statistics.
