Exploring the relationship between homelessness and risk factors for heroin-related death--a qualitative study

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between housing status, associated social networks and risk factors for heroin-related death. We used semi-structured face-to-face qualitative interviews, recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically by framework techniques at three centres providing services to homeless people in a large cosmopolitan city. Different types of accommodation for homeless people have differing social cultures which have an impact upon the amount of heroin used, likelihood of injecting alone or likelihood of achieving abstinence. Hostel accommodation appeared to be linked with a culture of group injecting, which tends to increase the amount of heroin taken. Those with experience of rough sleeping described heroin use to ameliorate the uncomfortable realities of outdoor sleeping, although the overall amount used tended to be less due to having less money to spend on drugs. The prison setting was described as a setting where heroin use was reduced or stopped. Moving away from homelessness towards sustaining an independent tenancy appeared to be associated with a move towards solitary use. We postulate that a progression towards solitary use in a housed environment is one explanation for previous research findings showing the average age of heroin-related death to be increasing despite a decrease in the average age of initiation into heroin use. Hostel accommodation should form a priority setting for future health promotion interventions aimed to reduce heroin-related death. They appear to be linked with an increase in heroin use in the presence of a third party. Drug users sleeping rough in cold climates need to be made aware of the dangers of medicating with heroin to address problems of insomnia due to cold weather.