“We live in a world steeped in violence, affecting everyone, including those working in health and social services.” So begins the new animation being developed with funding announced on March 5 by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
March 7, 2025
The project, entitled “Equipping the Gender-Based Violence Sector for Substance Use Health” (Equipping the GBV sector) is under the direction of Drs. Colleen Varcoe and Annette J. Browne and Ms. Nancy Lipsky at the UBC School of Nursing’s EQUIP Health Care (Equip) and their partners.
This new Family and Gender-Based Violence Prevention PHAC investment project is co-led in BC with the Ending Violence Association of BC (EVA-BC). The project will engage people with lived experience of substance use stigma, and Francophone organizations to co-design effective policies and practices that will be tried out by and shared with service providers. Working with the Westcoast Community Resources Society (WCCRS), the Kamloops Sexual Assault Counselling Centre (KSACC), and partners in Ontario and New Brunswick, the project recognizes that gender-based violence (GBV) and substance use are interconnected, and that people with lived experience of both encounter barriers to accessing crucial support services. This project seeks to improve how these issues are addressed so that no one is stigmatized and turned away from programs and resources that can improve safety and promote health and wellbeing.
For the team, the ultimate goal is to have all people treated with dignity and respect regardless of their use of substances or experiences of violence. To reach this goal, the project brings together experts in violence with experts in substance use, including both service providers and people with lived experience. At the core of this initiative is an aim to offer service providers resources that reflect diverse experiences and expertise, and promote better experiences for both people seeking support and people providing services.
Equip strives toward inclusive language and service approaches, offering new strategies and resources for service providers to respond to the needs of everyone they serve, and to promote understanding of the complex relationships between GBV and substance use.
Substance Use
Many people who use substances heavily employ them to deal with pain related to trauma and interpersonal and systemic violence. Stigma remains a barrier to getting support. In particular, certain people (for example those without access to housing, Indigenous and other racialized people) often are assumed by others to use substances heavily and are stigmatized, regardless of their actual substance use. The use of some substances, like stimulants or criminalized substances, is also more likely to be stigmatized. Ultimately, stigma shows up in many forms, and can layer and compound for people experiencing multiple forms of stigma, discouraging people from accessing support related to either gender-based violence or substance use.
Building on the work of CAPSA, a key partner, Equip uses the concept of “Substance Use Health” to consider the range of substance use experiences and related health impacts and to develop and support inclusive and non-stigmatizing approaches that promote health while respecting individual self-determination.
Violence
People in society daily witness violence in sport, in gaming, online, in the turn of phrase and in how we raise our children. While boys and men are often encouraged to respond aggressively to tense situations, girls are often taught to acquiesce and be subservient. The role of substance use in perpetuating violence is often misunderstood. Substance use doesn’t cause or excuse violence. Every system has potential to reduce harms and barriers to wellbeing, and better understanding the relationships between substance use and GBV increases that potential.
Health and Social Services
Getting support is especially challenging for people who experience violence and use substances heavily, especially women and gender minorities, or people who have acute mental health issues. To address these challenges, this project is partnering with diverse experts to enhance approaches to working with people experiencing violence and to develop resources that will be useful in a wide range of health and social service settings.
At the Intersection
The Equip project is planted at the meeting point of violence, substance use and equitable and effective service provision. It is a place where new ideas that will improve services for people affected by GBV may blossom.
If we can see violence as a result of power inequities related to gender, ethnicity, the inequitable concentration of wealth in our society, ability, and so on, we can draw attention to social changes that are needed. When we see substance use as encompassing a range of experiences and harms, the door is opened to conversations about Substance Use Health, just as we talk about physical health and mental health.
The Equip project is situated to tease out, expand, and deploy resources to transform minds, hearts, and practice. With that in mind, the ultimate goal of reducing violence and preventing substance use-related harms is not just possible and necessary - this is a meaningful step toward making it a reality.