Evaluating the impact of alternative income assistance timing on drug-related harm
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Lindsey Richardson, Department of Sociology, UBC
Partner(s): Mr. Russ Maynard, Harm Reduction Manager; Mr. Kevin Grant, Pigeon Park Savings, PHS Community Services Society
Coordinated monthly social assistance payments, while seeking to alleviate poverty, can have negative and unintended impacts, particularly among people who use illicit drugs (PWUD). Observational research has identified escalations in drug-related harm coinciding with assistance payments, such as overdose, treatment interruption and hospital admissions. This project varies the timing and frequency of social assistance disbursement through Pigeon Park Savings (PPS), a Vancouver-based community bank, and evaluates whether varying social assistance disbursement reduces drug-related harm coinciding with coordinated social assistance. Conducted among 273 PWUD, participants will be allocated for 6 social assistance cycles to a control or one of two intervention arms. Intervention arm participants will receive their social assistance through PPS:
(1) monthly on a day different from government cheque issue; or
(2) semi-monthly on days different from government cheque issue.
The intervention will be evaluated using qualitative and quantitative methods for its impact on drug use and related harms.
