Differential Quality Assessment of Harm Reduction Service in Drop-in Centers and Shelters: from expectations to perceptions

Harm reduction centers are founded in Iran to reduce health, economic and social side effects of drug abuse. Nevertheless, the quality of services in these centers are of the main issues which facing the concerned organizations. The objective of this study was to assess the quality and the difference of providing services to reduce harms in drop-in centers and shelters of state welfare organization.
This study is a descriptive and cross-sectional study. The study population is consisted of clients who were coming to harm reduction centers (drop-in centers and shelter). The sample size is 268 people. The stratified random probability method was used for sampling. The data collection tools were adjusted questionnaire of measuring service quality (SERVQUAL) by Parasuraman et al. The data were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 software and paired t-test, Friedman and Kruskal–Wallis tests.
The findings showed that there is a significant difference between the clients’ expectations of overall quality of harm reduction services and their perception (p≤0.01). Beside that there is a significant difference between clients’ expectations of the quality of each one of the aspects of harm reduction services and their perception of their corresponding dimensions (p≤0.01). Dimensions of Tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, empathy and assurance and harm reduction centers of Nejatzendegi, Qoqnoos, Aramesh, Asak and Hedayet respectively had the lowest and highest mean ranking.
The services which are given to clients of drop-in centers and shelters increase the possibility of reducing the social, economic, health consequences of drug abuse among them and in society. The clients of drop-in centers and shelters see the quality of harm reduction services as a supporting mechanism that need government support to increase the quality of programs and harm reduction services.