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Hacks for Harm Reduction Home Delivery

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Home delivery can be one of the most meaningful and trusted forms of harm reduction—bringing care directly to people in the places they feel safest. It also requires a high level of discretion, respect, and planning to protect confidentiality and ensure safety for both participants and workers.

  • Set up a VOIP number like a Google phone number so that several folks can take calls from those who need services.
  • Be sure and ask the potential client about confidentiality. It’s especially critical to know who in their home environment knows or does not know about their use and how discreet you need to be. Some people are very open about their lifestyle and others are extremely closeted, so you will need to know those details in order to maintain their privacy and your credibility.
  • The same goes for phones—be discreet and ask about boundaries, including whether it’s okay to leave detailed voicemail or texts.
  • Set service parameters ahead of time. For example, you may limit services to your city or county.
  • Leverage your home delivery participants as secondary or “satellite” exchangers. Home delivery participants often have contact with other PWUD who are unable or unwilling to come to get services directly. It is in the best interest of both your program and the community to capitalize on these key community members.
  • Do delivery in pairs, especially the first time or two you go to someone’s place.
  • Once a participant has been established, it is still a good idea to share location information as a team during home delivery.
  • DO NOT act scared of your participants or treat them as if they may try and harm you.

Featured Hacks

These featured hacks highlight creative, practical solutions from harm reduction leaders on the ground. From DIY tools to clever workarounds, each one reflects the ingenuity, care, and real-world experience that keeps this movement alive. 

Edie Springer’s Worker Stances for Clients Who Use Drugs & Harm Reduction Worker: Best Practices

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Harm reduction immediately resonated for Edie, who was herself a former drug user and methadone patient. Faced with the devastation of HIV’s impact on drug-using communities, Edie fully embraced harm reduction and trained hundreds of harm reduction workers who have carried her legacy with them. She developed these worker stances in 1996 and they have been shared among many of us in the harm reduction community for generations.
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Important Terms: Person First Language

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Generally, it’s important to use “person first language” when describing people who are marginalized due to some part of their identity being stigmatized, such as folks struggling with their substance use, people who do sex work, and folks living outside.
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