What is a harm reduction worker?
Harm reduction helps ensure services are non-judgmental and available to all. Harm reduction treats people with respect. It helps people connect with others and develop healthy relationships. It involves working directly with people and their communities.
What is a harm reduction in psychology?
Description. Harm reduction refers to a set of pragmatic and compassionate strategies that aim to reduce substance-related harm and improve quality of life for people who use substances and their communities—without requiring abstinence or use reduction.
Are schools required to teach about drugs?
Public schools must teach all their students each year in all grades the skills and knowledge they need to understand and avoid harm from alcohol, drugs, nicotine, and tobacco, using appropriate necessary materials.
What is the 4 pillars approach?
The Four Pillars approach is recognized internationally as an effective way to address the harms associated with substance use. It uses the four pillars of Prevention, Harm Reduction, Enforcement, and Treatment to form a balanced, solid foundation on which to build a comprehensive community drug strategy.
What is Canada’s drug strategy?
Under the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy (CDSS), the Public Health Agency of Canada works with the federal government to create policies and institutions to support people living with addiction. The purpose of this strategy is to prevent and treat problematic substance use.
What is harm reduction CDC?
Harm reduction is any behavior or strategy that helps reduce risk or harm to yourself or others. For example, to reduce the risk of contracting or transmitting HIV, you can practice safer sex or safer drug use.
What are pharmacotherapies used for?
Pharmacotherapy is the use of prescribed medication to assist in the treatment of addiction. Pharmacotherapies can be used to reduce the intensity of withdrawal symptoms, to manage cravings and to reduce the likelihood of a lapse or relapse by blocking a drug or addictive behaviour’s effect.
What are the seven drug categories?
7 Drug Categories
- (1) Central Nervous System (CNS) Depressants. CNS depressants slow down the operations of the brain and the body.
- (2) CNS Stimulants.
- (3) Hallucinogens.
- (4) Dissociative Anesthetics.
- (5) Narcotic Analgesics.
- (6) Inhalants.
- (7) Cannabis.
What is in a harm reduction kit?
The harm reduction program provides sterile, single-use injection and inhalation supplies and safe disposal of used drug equipment:
- Clean syringes.
- Alcohol swabs.
- Sterile water.
- Tourniquets.
- Spoons and filters.
- Safer inhalation kits.
- Sharps containers.
- Referrals to community resources.
Which is an example of a harm reduction strategy?
Harm reduction strategies include drinking beverages that have lower caffeine or alcohol content; smoking, vaping, or consuming tobacco and cannabis products in less harmful ways; and taking precautions when having sex to reduce the likelihood of disease transmission.
What can I do to help with harm reduction?
Bring together a panel of people who can speak to harm reduction approaches from a personal/community/professional perspective (e.g., AIDS coalitions, condoms programs, methadone maintenance programs, needle exchanges, peer administered Naloxone, Housing First, etc.)
How is harm reduction related to substance abuse?
Harm reduction can be described as a strategy directed toward individuals or groups that aims to reduce the harms associated with certain behaviours. When applied to substance abuse, harm reduction accepts that a continuing level of drug use (both licit and illicit) in society is inevitable and defines objectives as reducing adverse consequences.
How is harm reduction used in sexual health?
In recent years, harm reduction has been successfully applied to sexual health education in an attempt to reduce both teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Programs using a harm reduction philosophy have also successfully lowered risky alcohol use.