Chemsex is a common practice in the gay community. At the same time, peer counselors and specialists don't always know how to work with people resorting to chemsex, how to do so correctly and for the client's benefit. To fix this, ECOM has released a guide on working with people who practice chemsex, "That's what I do when I feel pain".

“This is the first manual of this kind in Russian! The guide is a compilation of material that can answer questions frequently asked by NGO staff, peer counselors, psychologists and health professionals about what chemsex is. The guide is unique because it's down to earth and analyzes real cases. We tried to choose the most 'archetypal' images and show what tools proved their efficacy in supporting users, what challenges arose and how we helped,” says Nikolay Lunchenkov, co-author of the guide and LGBT Health Coordinator at ECOM.

The presentation of the guide took place during the webinar "Playing Safer: Creating Services for Chemsex Users", during which Ilya Radevich, co-author of the guide, spoke about his experience in providing services to chemsex users.

You can watch the webinar recording on our YouTube channel.

The guide "That's what I do when I feel pain" includes real stories of chemsex users, whose examples the authors give in order to illustrate possible approaches to work. In this guide, we have also collected best practices on how to work with clients. These include:

Finding out the client's attitude to chemsex.
Formulating the request and setting goals.
Educating the client on harm reduction techniques that would be suitable for him.
Providing psychoeducation to the client and assistance in determining the place of chemsex in his life, as well as the functions that chemsex serves for him.
Assistance in identifying triggers and triggering situations. When the client is most vulnerable to resorting to chemsex as a way to resolve internal conflicts.
Assistance in developing skills of stress resistance and emotional self-regulation.
Referring the client to a trusted psychologist, support group and other medical and paramedical specialists.