Nineteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

This paper highlights an innovative and collaborative study aimed at amplifying the voices and experiences of harm reduction workers, known as peers, who work at the frontlines of the ongoing toxic drug supply crisis in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada. The project draws on community-based participatory research (CBPR) involves oral history and arts-based research methods. The project is timely and important because more than 30,000 people across Canada have experienced fatal overdoses since a public health crisis was declared in 2016. Peers play a critical role in helping to save lives and reducing harms in this unfolding situation that has affected virtually every community in Canada. The study engages 12 peers in frequent remote conversations and invites them to share details about work-related stressors, which include precarious employment, financial insecurity, and trauma as a result of continually witnessing fatal overdoses, and more. Students researchers who are artists are conducting graphic illustrations about peers’ testimonies. They are also conducting graphic-elicitation interviews with research collaborators. The purpose is to invite further dialogue and reflection about their work-related stressors and to share this knowledge. In the paper, we explore and respond to the following questions: i) Can sustained dialogue, oral history, and graphic illustration enable peers to share nuanced information about stressors they experience? ii) Does graphic illustration and graphic-elicitation allow peers to create greater awareness about their work-related stressors and challenge stigma about people who use drugs and experience overdose?