Outreach and Peer Support
NUAA continually strives to provide low-barrier services to people who use and inject drugs who often face many challenges and barriers to accessing equipment, resources and services.
The outreach team operates in several Local Health Districts (LHDs) throughout NSW, working in partnership with service providers including general practitioners, Hospital and Community Health services, non-government organisations (NGOs) and other community agencies. We aim to increase access to sterile injecting equipment, reduce barriers to service access, enhance service delivery models and improve quality of care using an integrated and coordinated approach.
NUAA’s outreach services are aimed at people with limited access to established NSP providers and other harm reduction services. As a secondary NSP, the outreach team deliver sterile injecting equipment to people who inject drugs within their local community. In addition to providing injecting equipment, the outreach team delivers education, health promotion, and brief interventions, and it is often viewed as a gateway to other health and welfare services.
For more information or to find out when our outreach team are coming to a town near you, please call us on (02) 9171 6650 or email us at outreach@nuaa.org.au
Nepean Blue Mountains
NUAA provides outreach services in the Penrith, Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury regions in partnership with Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District.
Based at Exchange on Parker at Nepean Hospital, our Aboriginal Peer Workers help raise awareness of blood-borne viruses, increase Hep C education, screening and assessment, provide psychosocial support to vulnerable populations and link people to clinical services.
Exchange on Parker provides a range of services in a non-judgmental and anonymous environment, including:
Needle and Syringe Program (NSP)
disposal bins
nursing clinic for vein and wound care
safe injecting advice
vaccinations
DBS tests
blood screening
safe sex equipment
Exchange on Parker
Nepean Hospital Campus
Building C, Nepean Hospital
(left hand end - next to the loading dock)
Parker Street, Kingswood, NSW, 2747
Phone: (02) 4734 3996
1800 354 589
Harm Reduction Training
NUAA has extensive experience delivering peer-led training and education for community members who want to learn about harm reduction.
Our harm reduction workshops cover a range of topics, including hygiene and safer use, vein care, recognising and responding to overdose, how to use naloxone, blood-borne viruses, infection control, stigma and discrimination, and navigating health services.
Our Hep C Work
NUAA is committed to working towards eliminating hepatitis C in NSW by 2028 (the state’s target). We use the empathy and support that comes from peer-to-peer connections, which can often be the turning point in taking action around hep C. Peers are integral to it all!
We have developed a partnership approach and work alongside clinical services to help individuals access services. The aim is to ensure that people who use drugs (PWUD) are empowered, informed and supplied with all the tools they need to prevent blood-borne virus transmission (through access to appropriate injecting equipment), get tested for hep C (and understand what that test means), and if needed, to get through treatment with Direct Acting Antivirals (DAAs). We aim to remove barriers to achieving a successful sustained viral response (SVR), which means the virus is cleared (cured).
Dried Blood Spot (DBS) Testing
NUAA is now an authorised Dried Blood Spot (DBS) Site, which is an effective, low-threshold and convenient means of getting a hep C or HIV test. DBS test is a less invasive way to test for hep C and HIV that doesn’t require a vein puncture. DBS specimens are collected by applying a few drops of blood drawn by lancet from your finger onto specially manufactured absorbent filter paper. You don’t need to go to a clinic or see a doctor to do this test. It can be done in the privacy of your own home. Just mail the test back, and you will get your results by phone, text or email.
Point of Care Testing (POCT)
NUAA has partnered with The Kirby Institute, NSW Health, and selected Local Health Districts to co-lead, co-develop, and co-implement a peer-led mobile hepatitis C testing model, including peer-supported engagement, financial incentives, point-of-care HCV testing, and linkage to care to enhance treatment uptake among people who inject drugs. The Peers On Wheels (POW) project will significantly improve community access to hep C resources by bringing point-of-care testing and treatment to areas where it is needed most and meeting people where they are at.