The objective of this research was to explore how gay men use drugs in their sex lives, colloquially called “chemsex”. This paper reports on a sub-theme within the research about support, care and peer support. Longitudinal interviews were conducted with 20 gay and bi men between April 2017 and July 2019. Participants were recruited via geolocated dating apps (n = 17) and snowball sampling (n = 3). The main findings of this research are that medicalised forms of support for gay and bi men engaging in chemsex are often tardy in their responses to need, and whilst helpful for cessation of drug use, fail to address the holistic needs of the participants. A wide variety of peer support was practiced amongst the sample which often echoed previous forms of peer support practiced in the LGBT+ community. It was offered by both people who engaged in chemsex and those who did not and was highly beneficial to people who experienced problems with chemsex. However, peer support was also limited by factors such as shame and the instability of those offering support. In conclusion, we suggest that medicalised forms of chemsex support could benefit from more rigorous and rapid forms of assessment for problematic chemsex, and also provide infrastructure and training to peer support initiatives. We also suggest that medical services could learn from patients and their peers about what support needs remain unaddressed by professional services, and engage in collaborative approaches to practice development.

中文翻译：

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对参与 chemsex 的男同性恋者和双性恋者的支持、关怀和同伴支持

这项研究的目的是探索男同性恋者如何在性生活中使用药物，俗称“ch​​emsex”。本文报告了关于支持、关怀和同伴支持的研究中的一个子主题。2017 年 4 月至 2019 年 7 月期间，我们对 20 名男同性恋和双性恋男性进行了纵向访谈。参与者是通过地理定位约会应用程序 ( n  = 17) 和滚雪球抽样 ( n = 3). 这项研究的主要发现是，对从事化学性行为的男同性恋者和双性恋者提供的医疗形式的支持往往对他们的需求反应迟缓，虽然有助于戒毒，但未能满足参与者的整体需求。样本中实施了各种各样的同伴支持，这通常与 LGBT+ 社区中以前实施的同伴支持形式相呼应。它是由参与 chemsex 的人和不参与 chemsex 的人提供的，并且对遇到 chemsex 问题的人非常有益。然而，同伴支持也受到羞耻感和提供支持者不稳定等因素的限制。总之，我们建议医疗形式的 chemsex 支持可以受益于对有问题的 chemsex 进行更严格和快速的评估形式，还为同伴支持计划提供基础设施和培训。我们还建议医疗服务可以向患者及其同行学习专业服务尚未解决的支持需求，并采用协作方法来实践发展。