NAT is a UK charity dedicated to transforming society's response to HIV. The document discusses chemsex, which is the use of drugs to enhance sex, and NAT's efforts to address policy issues around chemsex. NAT has brought together different sectors to discuss best practices, advocated for improved and integrated services, and seen some early impacts like increased attention on chemsex in prevention programs. However, there are still policy debates around issues like funding, inconsistent screening and referrals, limited specialized services, and a mismatch between open access sexual health services and locality-based drug services. Possible solutions discussed include consistent screening, cross-boundary services, improved data collection, and specialized and generic drug services working together.

1. Yusef Azad, Director of Strategy, NAT
Chemsex: a community policy
response
8 April 2016

2. Who are NAT?
The UK’s leading charity dedicated to transforming society’s
response to HIV (since 1987)
Our goals:

3. What can we do?
 Bring people together – sexual health and drugs
sectors; clinical, research, political and community
 Press for ‘real time’ forums to discuss issues and for
best practice guidance
 Advocate and campaign for service improvement

4. What have we done?
 Jan 2013 NAT seminar ‘HIV and Injecting Drug Use’,
and then report July 2013
 Letter July 2013 to London Councils calling for
London-wide integrated services to meet chemsex
need
 Approach to London Sexual Health Transformation
Project asking them to address chemsex Nov 2015
 Roundtable to agree a care pathway for MSM with
problematic chemsex needs in London Feb 2016

5. Some early impacts
 Public Health England set up a National Intelligence
Network on Harm Reduction
 Public Health England produce guidance for drugs
service commissioners on how to address MSM
chemsex need
 Increased attention on chemsex within national HIV
prevention programme, London HIV prevention needs
assessment etc

6. What are the policy issues?
 Austerity – no money for new services?
 Inconsistent practice around screening for chemsex
need and referral
 Drugs services and chemsex – clinical and cultural
competence?
 Limited access to specialised services for MSM
 Mismatch between open access sexual health services
and locality-based drugs services
 Patchy data

7. Where are the policy debates?
 Local services v a mobile MSM population
 Focus on chemsex v wider drugs and alcohol need in
MSM
 Specialised services v Competent generic services
 Data for clinical intervention v data for surveillance

8. .. and possible solutions?
 Consistent screening, data gathering and brief
interventions within sexual health services
 Ongoing training of both sexual health and drugs
service staff
 Cross-boundary services which reflect MSM life and
preferences
 Improve data collection on
need/interventions/outcomes
 Specialised and generic drugs services work together

9. Thank you and questions
Please email further questions or comments to
yusef.azad@nat.org.uk or 020 7814 6767

10. NAT (National AIDS Trust)