Background – Consumer ‘co-design’, or consumer ‘driven’, approaches are increasingly required in research grant calls by funding bodies, although the term ‘consumers’ is often assumed to refer to ‘service users’ rather than ‘people who use drugs’.
Objectives - This paper will explore early benefits and learnings of a planned multidisciplinary, co-design project involving people who use drugs, researchers, clinicians and health services, to identify and evaluate the risk and impact of polysubstance use and the use of NPS.
Methods – Narrative reflective account based on the process of team building, project co-design and grant writing.
Results - Advantages of consumer co-design include: Enhancing team strength and processes; engaging the expertise and insights arising from lived/living experience; project would not be feasible without (ongoing) co-design; ethical support; enhancing respondent recruitment; consumer governance and prioritising the role of people who use drugs; financial support for consumers and consumer organisations that reflect their expertise and contribution; consideration of results and implications; enhancing translation; and networking and future collaboration. Challenges and learnings include: Co-design with ‘young people’; mechanisms for ongoing co-design; people who use drugs are in high-demand as research partners; issues of disclosure of current or previous drug use; providing a safe and respectful environment for people with lived/living experience throughout the project; processes which support and encourage the voices of people who use drugs; and organisational support and value of consumer co-design.
Implications - Employing consumer co-design in drug policy research is desirable, feasible, increasingly expected and likely to produce better policy research outcomes.