Mr. Andy O'Hara:

We have a toolkit on that. It is about the most marginalised. Remember, drugs are across all classes and all parts of society but if we look to the overwhelming harm being caused, it is all of the marginalised groups who have experienced trauma, who have had a lack of opportunities, who take drugs to cope and then are punished and criminalised for taking drugs to cope. Then they arrive into the services and structures and are punished further because of the lack of understanding about where they come from. It is about having a structured approach to how we engage with those groups. It is not an add-on. Our toolkit is very clear about it. It is principles and values, process and task and making sure people who use drugs are part of the design, delivery and evaluation of everything.

An example of that would be the research. That was done specifically by people who were drug-dependent and who were currently in emergency accommodation. They did a living experience analysis of the services from a human rights framework. What they were able to do then was give an overall view of what the system is but then, more importantly, come up with solutions. What we see in our services is, when we start with, not the drug use and we will give people agency, a voice and some power and they will gave value and ownership. What happens is, normally, people progress through that. A lot of people may decide, "I might address my drug use, I might take less drugs", because once you give people ownership, value and a role in something bigger that is beyond just themselves then we can deal with all of the other stuff. There has to be a very targeted approach and very structured process to engage with those groups.