Harm reduction in practice - The Community Oriented Substance Use Programme in Tshwane.

Background: The Community Oriented Substance Use Programme (COSUP) is the first publicly funded, community-based programmatic response to the use of illegal substances in South Africa. It is founded on a systems thinking, public health and clinical care harm reduction approach.

Aim: To describe the critical components, key issues and accomplishments in the initiation and delivery of evidence-based, community-oriented, substance-use health and care services.