This section will walk through how you can prepare for a volatile substances harm incident, and the steps you can take now to help you respond. Examples of effective community responses are included throughout.
Even with a large amount of planning, incidents will still happen. Preparing for this in advance, including knowing who you will contact and what people’s roles are, will mean you can get on top of incidents quickly before they escalate.
In order to respond to an incident quickly and effectively, it is useful to have a group of contacts identified in advance and reach out to them to see if they would like to be involved in a response group. Who to involve in this response group will look different in every community, as what is most needed from a response group could be effective if it is tailored to the needs and goals of the community.
- Health and youth services: You can search your local health services on Healthpoint.co.nz
- Schools: See the section below around engaging schools in a community response.
- School community officers (SCOs): If community members have concerns about what is happening around a school, they can contact their school community officer through their local police station. Note that while SCOs have a great overview of what’s happening in the community, they can have 40 schools that they are responsible to, and may not be able to drive community action.
- Iwi and marae
- First responders (emergency services)
- Transitional housing and residential care services
Schools could play a vital role in a volatile substance harm response, so building relationships with schools is essential. They are likely to be one of the first places where an increase in potential harm is identified, and after an incident they may have students who need support. In preparing to respond to volatile substance harm, connect with schools to provide information about the components of incident response and gauge whether they have capacity to be involved in a potential future response.
- Schools are busy places. It can be helpful to know in advance who in the school you need to speak to, and to have a specific ask when you contact them.
- Multiple schools in a community can be helpful for a cohesive response, but it can also be challenging if actions and approaches aren’t being owned by one school.
- Note that primary and intermediate schools are a different context to secondary schools.
Case study
He Waka Eke Noa
He Waka Eke Noa is a community-based recovery programme involved in bringing the community together through Kapa Haka and shared kai. They implemented a kaupapa based on Quit Smoking, where nicotine replacement therapy and other incentives help participants achieve 4+ consecutive weeks of no smoking. This experience in working with key stakeholders from smoking cessation programs to respond to cigarette smoking rates could be vital experience in the response to volatile substance harm in the community.
Case study
Kootuitui ki Papakura Cluster
Kootuitui ki Papakura Cluster | Papakura Principals’ Cluster is the collaboration of several primary and secondary schools in the Papakura district of South Auckland. Led by one of the participating schools’ principals, Kootuitui delivers various forms of support such as professional support to school educators and health services; and through a co-design with whānau, provides applicable support and training for families (among many other initiatives). A multi-school group such as Kootuitui can play a vital role in a volatile substance incident response because their established communications and relationships would allow a response to reach a wider audience, thus having a greater impact on rangatahi enrolled in these many schools.
Forming a local response group
Some questions to help guide you might be:
- What groups exist and may be able to take over the role of forming and leading a volatile substances response, or incorporate this into established programmes of work? Consider neighborhood safety groups such as Porirua Pasifika Community Patrol, business associations like Otara Business Association, or university-based groups like University of Otago Campus Watch and Students’ Association.
- What services exist in your community that could help respond to volatile substance use/harm?
- Are there other community pillars that could be involved? Consider first responders, schools, iwi, marae, youth advisory groups, transitional housing, other official or unofficial centres of rural communities.
- Which services, organisations and groups are essential to the response? Consider available outreach services who may have strong connections to the community.
- Who could contact vulnerable young people quickly and be trusted by them?
- Who is well placed in the community to engage and coordinate with other services that might need to know about an incident?
For example, in some communities the Police might be able to respond to cases, but not in all communities.
Some examples of roles you might plan for could be: main coordinator, media liaison, subject matter expert, health and safety representative, incident reporter. Also consider roles that could be unique to your context or community.
Case study
Te Ara Oranga
Te Ara Oranga is a collaborative partnership between Te Whatu Ora, NZ Police, Ngāti Hine Health Trust, The Salvation Army, and Odyssey House. Te Ara Oranga works to reduce the impacts of methamphetamine use and crime in the Northland communities. Each partner brings distinct capabilities and expertise, including clinical oversight and national health monitoring, enforcement and community safety, frontline addiction treatment and recovery services, and connections to tangata whenua and kaupapa Māori approaches. Involving an established, diverse, partnership programme like this in the development and implementation of VSH response will contribute to the effectiveness of the response and how well it is received by the community and people involved.
You can download this template to help form your local response group and define specific roles.
Read more:
After a response
Taking time after a volatile substance harm incident to debrief and reflect on the response is important to help improve future approaches.