The St. James Infirmary offers all of our services in the spirit of the harm reduction movement, which encourages us to “meet people where they’re at,” and not leave them there. Our harm reduction work is a humanizing practice, offered with compassion and respect. We address our participants’ wants and needs without judgment, actively rejecting stigma by valuing each person’s inherent worth.
At our syringe access sites and during all clinic hours, we provide clean syringes for all uses, sharps containers, and other supplies for safer drug use. We also offer overdose prevention education and distribute Narcan. We give out safer sex supplies, hygiene supplies, first aid, food, and sometimes, clothing and other supplies to fulfill our participants’ basic needs.
We also operate a Secondary Syringe Exchange (SSE) program so that our program participants can distribute clean needles and safer drug use supplies, collect used syringes, and conduct peer education. We are actively enrolling injection drug users and their communities in this program—just come to one of our syringe access sites and ask us about it!
For a full listing of syringe access services in San Francisco, check out this schedule provided by the D.O.P.E. Project.
Check out AddictionResource.net for information on LGBTQ friendly rehabs.