Harm Reduction and Currently Illegal Drugs Implications for Nursing Policy, Practice, Education and Research

This discussion paper focuses specifically on harm reduction aimed at reducing the health and social harms associated  with illegal drug use. The paper presents current perspectives and evidence on harm reduction policy  and practice, and identifies the implications for nursing policy, practice, research and education. It is  anticipated that this information will inform discussions about appropriate policies, practices and  standards to improve the delivery of health care.

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A Light in the Dark Harm Reduction in Russia

People who use drugs often face stigma and discrimination when trying to get basic health care. Based in St. Petersburg—a city where 70% of HIV cases are the result of injecting drug use—the Humanitarian Action Fund fights for the health and human rights of injecting drug users, as well as other marginalized groups such as sex workers, migrants, and street children.

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Alcohol Harm Reduction National Support Team Engage • Recommend • Facilitate

Supporting Partnerships to Reduce Alcohol Harm: Key Findings, Recommendations and Case Studies  from the Alcohol Harm Reduction National Support Team

This document describes the work undertaken by the Alcohol Harm Reduction

National Support Team since its formation September 2008.  The Alcohol Harm

Reduction National Support Team formed part of the Department of Health’s Alcohol Improvement Programme, and followed a similar methodology to the other Public

Health National Support Teams.

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Dr. Andrew Tatarsky Harm Reduction Psychotherapy

A New Treatment for Drug and Alcohol Problem. Harm reduction is a framework for helping drug and alcohol users who cannot or will not stop completely_the majority of users_reduce the harmful consequences of use. Harm reduction accepts that abstinence may be the best outcome for many but relaxes the emphasis on abstinence as the only acceptable goal and criterion of success. Instead, smaller incremental changes in the direction of reduced harmfulness of drug use are accepted. This book shows how these simple changes in emphasis and expectation have dramatic implications for improving the effectiveness of psychotherapy.

Living and Dying With and Without Harm Reduction

I had the unusual experience of having been, within the last couple of weeks, in a room depicted in The New York Times webcast, which covers three stories around the world each day. This was the injection room in Vancouver. The New York Times followed this webcast with a Science Times article about the substantial benefits of this program, called Insite, in terms of reduction in HIV infection and increased follow-up medical treatment of addicts.

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In Defense of Charlie Sheen

Harm Reduction at Work – A Guide for Organisations Employing People who Use Drugs

This is the third in a series aimed to provide practical hands on guidance for harm reduction and drug user organisations. This guide lays out a series of strategies to address the challenges faced by organisations that want to hire people who are on drugs or who are on methadone treatment

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Syringe Access & Law Enforcement: Working Models Training material

A harm reduction approach to drug use is still relevant

A new government means a new strategy on drug use. But decision-makers are putting politics before evidence, says Professor Gerry Stimson

Harm reduction aims to reduce the risks of drugs, and to mitigate impacts on the individual and the wider society. It is basic good public health and social policy. So, why doesn’t everyone support it? Conservative party ideologues have rewritten the history of harm reduction. They blame it on Labour. But harm reduction has a long history.

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What the World Can Learn from Drug Policy Change in Switzerland

Switzerland, a country renowned for its solid conservatism, was shaken by seeing its cities  become the point of convergence of thousands of drug users and counterculture activists,  culminating in large open drug scenes in the late 1980s. The country was hit hard by HIV,  which was strongly linked—both in the public mind and in reality—to growing drug injection.

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