Your Community Health’s Steroid Educator is the only peer worker role of its kind in Australia. She has worked across Victoria for 25 years and has seen first-hand the impact and influence of social media and influencers on the communities who use performance and image-enhancing drugs (PIEDs). PIEDs used to be confined to men and women who were competing in bodybuilding and to body building gyms. The rise of social media and influencers has shifted PIEDs use to people who are seeking the ‘body beautiful’ and the praise and affirmation that follows. The Steroid Educator has seen increased use of PIEDs in culturally and linguistically diverse communities and women. Across Victoria NSPs are reporting increasing demand for injecting equipment for PIED use. With the rise in PIED use and the broader demographics of people who use PIEDs, there is a need to scale up this successful peer harm reduction model across Australia.
Presenters
Kay Stanton Steroid Educator Your Community Health
Kay Stanton is a Steroid Educator and peer worker with a background in competitive bodybuilding. Kay has worked with people who use performance and image-enhancing drugs across Victoria for 25 years.