NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, housing, alcohol, substance abuse, cannabis, isolation centre

Objective(s): To document, assess and evaluate changes to participants' intake of alcohol and cannabis over the duration of the COVID-19 Isolation Shelter Harm Reduction program.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.4839. The purpose of this project is to document, assess and evaluate changes to participants' intake of alcohol and cannabis over the duration of the COVID-19 Isolation Shelter Harm Reduction program. In particular, the research team are interested in how a transitional housing program offered in conjunction with a Managed Alcohol and Cannabis Program affects the amount and types of substances consumed by participants in the program, and ultimately amplifies the supportive nature of the transitional housing program itself. Moreover, the team are interested in using this research to further explore the potential for the addition of Harm Reduction programs to transitional and supportive housing projects elsewhere in Yellowknife and across the territory. The funding and programming that have been put in place to create Isolation Shelters under COVID-19 provide an unprecedented and timely opportunity to evaluate the outcomes of these programs and assess their potential for future shelter programming. This study involves the collection and analysis of data taken from the Arnica program's intake and assessment criteria. Currently, all participants in the Arnica Inn/COVID-19 Isolation Shelter program are required to fill out an intake form and participate in a daily activity assessment form. These forms have been developed by Yellowknife Women's Society (YWS) and are filled out by YWS staff in consultation with participants. Joanne Speakman, a research assistant currently based at the Institute of Circumpolar Health Research in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories will collect the forms, anonymize the data and input the data into an excel spreadsheet. The need for community engagement and consultation are an ongoing component in the research, the production of research materials that will be of use to the community, the connection of research objectives to identified community research needs, and the use of methods that are respectful of Indigenous (in this case Dene, Inuit and Métis) modes of knowledge sharing. As such, community engagement and consultation has been a continuous part of the research process, with the project itself emerging as the result of research needs identified by the Yellowknife Women's Society and the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research. As part of the project implementation, the team have assembled an advisory committee that includes the research team as well as Elders Be'sha Blondin, Paul Andrew, and Felix Lockhart, each of whom has considerable experience in providing outreach to men and women living with homelessness in the community. Research results will be presented to participants and the public through the production and sharing of an evaluation report card. This report card will present information on the results of the program through an accessible infographic to be used by the Yellowknife Women's Society in their program reporting and advocacy. This infographic will also be shared on a project website as well as the research website. Research results will also be published in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from March 3, 2021 to December 31, 2021.