Abstract

The overdose epidemic continues to be one of the largest public health crises in Canada. Various harm reduction supports have been implemented to curb this epidemic; however, they remain concentrated within urban settings. To address this limitation, overdose response hotlines and applications (ORHA) are novel, technologybased harm reduction services that may reduce drug-related mortality for people who use substances (PWUS) living in rural communities through virtual supervised consumption. These services enable more timely and remote activation of emergency responses, should an individual become unresponsive. We aimed to explore the experiences, perceptions and attitudes surrounding ORHA of individuals living in rural areas.