9 December 2025
INHSU has launched a new Ethical Storytelling Roadmap, a practical resource designed to support safer, more collaborative and stigma-reducing storytelling across HIV, hepatitis C and harm reduction settings.
The Roadmap was developed following a dedicated ethical storytelling workshop at INHSU 2025 and a panel discussion at INHSU 2024, facilitated by our Communications Manager, Brooke Nolan. It was co-designed through hands-on activities with people who use drugs, peer advocates, community organisations, researchers and service providers from around the world.
Across the sector, stories remain central to advocacy, research translation, funding and public health messaging. But personal storytelling, especially when it involves people with lived and living experience of drug use, can carry significant risks and emotional burden. When stories are rushed, extractive, sensationalised or shared without adequate care, individuals may face distress, stigma, online harm and loss of control.
What’s included in the roadmap
The Ethical Storytelling Roadmap aims to change this by providing a clear, values-driven framework that centres agency, consent, dignity and emotional safety at every step of the storytelling process.
The resource includes:
- A set of guiding values for ethical storytelling
- Practical roadmap of advice from preparation through to aftercare
- Guidance for researchers, peers and organisations working together
- Approaches designed to reduce stigma and build community power
Workshop participants emphasised the need for real-world, nuanced advice rather than theoretical principles alone. The Roadmap reflects this, drawing directly from lived experience, trauma-informed practice and the realities of frontline work.
This resource would not exist without the contributions of community members and partners across two years of INHSU events.I want to thank everyone who contributed their stories, guidance and experiences, your insights were invaluable. This Roadmap is a reflection of that shared wisdom, and of the care and leadership shown by people with lived and living experience of drug use.
The Roadmap is now available as a free resource for anyone working in HIV, HCV or harm reduction.
