Journal of Nursing, Social Studies, Public Health and Rehabilitation X:X | DOI: 10.32725/jnss.2026.012

Drug consumption rooms from the perspective of social workers and clients

Vojtěch Plitz, Stanislav Ondrášek ORCID...*, Alena Hricová ORCID...
University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Institute of Social and Special-paedagogical Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

Objective: To identify the attitudes, ideas, and needs of clients and contact centre workers in relation to the possible implementation of a drug consumption room in the Czech environment.

Methods: The qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with two groups of informants: five contact centre clients (IN1-IN5, CL) and six employees/social workers (IN1-IN6, EM). The data were obtained in the contact centre environment, anonymised, and analysed using open coding with a comparison of the perspectives of both groups.

Results: The analysis identified six thematic areas: ideas about the drug consumption room, motivations for use, reasons for non-use, appropriate parameters, expectations of additional services, and opinions on the location of the drug consumption room in the contact centre. The informants clearly supported the drug consumption room and perceived it as a safe and hygienic environment with the potential to reduce the risk of overdose, infections, and negative impacts of public application. Key barriers were concerns about control, stigmatisation, overly restrictive rules, and service availability. Both groups preferred integrating the drug consumption room into the contact centre and agreed on the importance of follow-up services (material exchange, basic treatment, testing, and possibly Naloxone distribution).

Conclusion: The findings indicate a high acceptance of drug consumption rooms among the target population and service workers, and the need for a low-threshold, trustworthy, and safety-balanced setting. The results may support professional discussion and preparation for a pilot implementation of drug consumption rooms in the Czech Republic.

Keywords: Drug consumption rooms; Harm reduction; Intravenous drug use; Public health; Social work
Conflicts of interest:

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Received: February 17, 2026; Revised: May 17, 2026; Accepted: June 15, 2026; Prepublished online: June 15, 2026 

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