Before the Boom intervention started, participants of the exchange took part of the international training, which was performed by different project partners, who are specialized in specific aspects of the intervention. Here you can read what we learned and how.
In the training we learned about basic first aid, drugs and adulterants and drug checking procedure (how to collect samples and also how to report results back to the users with short harm reduction consultation). Another very important part of the training was team building activities and discussion about the rules, which helped us to make the whole learning experience pleasant learning environment for all people included (peers, coordinators and young people approaching PINS activities). We also attended training organized by Kosmicare, where we learned important lessons about psychedelic emergencies and how Kosmicare volunteers are taking care of people who are having difficult psychedelic experience.
Trainers used different working methods to present the topic to the participants:
- social and team building games (for making stronger connections in our group),
- role playing (we learned how to use motivation interview technics, while returning drug checking results),
- frontal presentation of topic and working material (where we learned more about drugs, adulterants and collecting samples for drug checking),
- working in small goups to solve different problems (for example how to react in different cases of medical emergencies),
- oral evaluation and evaluation questionnaires (pre- and post-evalution questionnaires).
Below we provide the insight into the training session of the PINS part of the training, prepared by each trainer and his/her organization. For more information or future cooperation on the topic, you can also contact organization or proffesionals, who prepared specific part of the training.
Team Building and Communication: training[at]drugscouts.de (Drugscouts, Germany),
Basic first aid training content, First aid images – training material: emma[at]crew2000.org.uk (Crew2000, Scotland)
Colecting samples for drug checking: helenamvalente[at]gmail.com (Helena Valente and Check!n, Portugal)
Substance and adulterants training Substances and Adulterants, mireia[at]energycontrol.org, info[at]energycontrol.org (Energy control, Spain)
Reporting Results with Harm Reduction Consultation: mireia[at]energycontrol.org, info[at]energycontrol.org (Energy control, Spain)
Evaluation: questionnaires were prepared to check gained knowledge of participants and their satisfaction with the training; the concept of the evaluation was taken and adapted from NEW IP project and questions were formed by teams of trainers.
Pre-training Evaluation Questionnaire
Post-training Evaluation Questionnaire
For more information about specific topics you can also check out the following publications:
Team building and communication games for young people
Compilation of Active Games – DIY
Basic first aid for alcohol and other drugs related overdoses
Basic First Aid – British Red Cross
How to Recognize an Overdose – Drug Policy Alliance
Overdoses & Emergencies – DrugWatch
Psychedelic emergencies and psyhelp
The Manual of Psychedelic Support – Psychedelic Care Providers
Psychedelic Harm Reduction Training – ZENDO
Drug checking
Drug Checking Consultation and Counselling Guidelines – TEDI
Drug Checking Service Good Practice Standards – NEWIP
Factsheet on Drug Checking in Europe – TEDI
Guidelines for Drug Checking Methodology – TEDI
General drug info
New Psychoactive Drugs – Crew2000