Hillier, Bradley and Carthy, Eliott and Kalk, Nicola and Moncrieff, Monty and Pakianathan, Mark and Tracy, Derek and Bowden-Jones, Owen and Hickson, Ford and Forrester, Andrew (2024) Developing a coordinated response to chemsex across health, justice and social care settings: expert consensus statement. BJPsych Bulletin, 48, (Special issue 5), pp. 306-313. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2024.46.
External website: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bjpsych-bu...
Chemsex occurs primarily among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), and there is evidence of a subgroup of users who carry out chemsex-related criminal offences and experience harm. Challenges with chemsex can present to various settings; there are concerns that harm is increasing, including at interfaces between health, social care and criminal justice systems. The UK response to date has lacked a coordinated approach. An expert reference group was convened to share chemsex knowledge, articulate priorities for research and pathway development, and foster collaborative working between agencies. It made three key recommendations: develop and increase training and awareness across all services; implement a coordinated research programme with the development of a common data-set and assessment tool to fully characterise population-level needs; develop a professional network to share information, provide professional support and act as a knowledge hub. There was support for a unified multi-agency strategy incorporating the priorities identified as overarching principles.
B Substances > New (novel) psychoactive substances
J Health care, prevention, harm reduction and treatment > Health related issues > Health information and education > Communicable / infectious disease control > Safe sex / sexual health
J Health care, prevention, harm reduction and treatment > Health care delivery
MM-MO Crime and law > Justice and enforcement system
T Demographic characteristics > Homosexual, gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender, LGBTQI
T Demographic characteristics > Substance or health care worker / provider
T Demographic characteristics > Social worker
VA Geographic area > International
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