Expand Harm Reduction Practices

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The details for the strategies related to harm reduction are organized under the specific topics that are described in the Zoom Map -- Expand Harm Reduction Practices

 

Overview

The term harm reduction has involves reducing all types of harms.  Preventing death through reversing overdose, preventing infection and disease transmission through needle exchange programs, preventing overdose through use of testing strips, and supporting public awareness campains in support of harm reduction strategies are just some of the ways harm reduction is put into practice.

One important aspect of harm reduction is that is supports interventions aimed at reducing the negative effects of health behaviors without necessarily extinguishing the problematic health behaviors completely.  In a substance use disorder setting, harm reduction seeks to keep a person alive while mimimizing negative health impacts that result from being active in addiction.  It is not the primary goal of harm reduction stratgies to get someone into treatment and recovery.  It is rooted in the view that we need to meet people where they are - and many are not ready to accept treatment of recovery.  That being said those involved in harm reduction are nearly always to ready to assist someone get connected to services if they express a desire to get help.

As many in the harm reduction community will say, a dead person cannot recover.

Definition

The Harm Reduction Journal defines harm reduction as 'policies and programs which aim to reduce the health, social, and economic costs of legal and illegal psychoactive drug use without necessarily reducing drug consumption'.  Exact definitions from other organizations vary slightly in their wording but are overall consistent.

Principles

Harm Reduction Principles set out by the National Harm Reduction Coalition include:

Accepts, for better or worse, that licit and illicit drug use is part of our world and chooses to work to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignore or condemn them

Ensures that people who use drugs and those with a history of drug use routinely have a real voice in the creation of programs and policies designed to serve them

Affirms people who use drugs (PWUD) themselves as the primary agents of reducing the harms of their drug use and seeks to empower PWUD to share information and support each other in strategies which meet their actual conditions of use

Calls for the non-judgmental, non-coercive provision of services and resources to people who use drugs and the communities in which they live in order to assist them in reducing attendant harm

Recognizes that the realities of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, past trauma, sex-based discrimination, and other social inequalities affect both people’s vulnerability to and capacity for effectively dealing with drug-related harm

Does not attempt to minimize or ignore the real and tragic harm and danger that can be associated with illicit drug use

Understands drug use as a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon that encompasses a continuum of behaviors from severe use to total abstinence, and acknowledges that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others

Establishes quality of individual and community life and well-being — not necessarily cessation of all drug use — as the criteria for successful interventions and policies 

 

References and Related Articles

Link to a national organization focusing on Harm Reduction: Harm Reduction Coalition