DUT harm-reduction programme recognised for bold response to pandemic
The initiative was so successful that the eThekwini Municipality has awarded one of its buildings, Bellhaven Memorial in Greyville, for the purposes of running a full-time harm-reduction centre.
Involved in working at the centre are Michael Wilson, Monique Marks and Leoness Meth at Bellhaven.
PROFESSOR Monique Marks, head of the Urban Futures Centre (UFC) at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), and her team, were recently presented with the Inaugural Team Award for their outstanding contribution in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The award was presented at the 2020/21 HSRC-USAf Medal for Excellence in the Social Sciences and Humanities ceremony.
The UFC team, led by Prof Marks, was honoured for their phenomenal contribution during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in developing a responsive and evidence-based programme for homeless people who are heroin-dependent.
This with the acknowledgement of the UFC’s sustained research, innovation and engagement track record since its inception in 2014.
At the start of the national lockdown level 5 in 2020, the UFC together with partner organisations, including the eThekwini Municipality, Advance Access and Delivery, TB HIV Care and the South African Network of People who Use Drugs organised a withdrawal management programme in two of the lockdown safe spaces for homeless people.
This initiative was so successful that the municipality has awarded one of its buildings, Bellhaven Memorial in Greyville, for the purposes of running a full-time harm-reduction centre.
Professor Monique Marks and the Inaugural Team Award that she recently accepted on behalf of the Urban Futures Centre at DUT.
Prof Marks extended her appreciation to the UFC team which was comprised predominantly of women.
She noted that the UFC’s response during the Covid-19 lockdown was possible because of the ongoing support that she and her team received from DUT and the autonomy that was granted in honouring academic freedom and knowledge expertise.
The project began in an underground parking lot at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, where a group of social scientists, public health specialists and a specialist psychiatrist provided medical and psycho-social assistance to 260 homeless people in moderate to severe states of withdrawal from heroin.
As Prof Marks explained at the awards ceremony, withdrawal from any type of opioid is extremely traumatic, more so when it is forced during a pandemic lockdown.
The team she led operated seven days a week from the first day of lockdown in the homeless safe spaces and this seven day a week service now runs at Bellhaven Harm Reduction Centre.
Professor Marks said the monetary prize will be used to digitise the Bellhaven Harm Reduction Centre data system, to improve systems and to provide easily accessible de-identified data for research.
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At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.
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