Harm Reduction Basics
A technique in harm reduction which involves collecting used needles from drug users and providing them with sterile needles
What is syringe exchange?
Engaging local leaders and developing community-driven harm reduction programs helps build this crucial element between service providers and communities.
What is Trust?
FREE 100 Points
FREE 100 Points
True or False: Harm reduction strategies, such as needle exchanges, increase drug use in the community rather than decrease it.
False
(Potier et al., 2014)
A common harm reduction service that prevents the spread of infections among people who inject drugs.
What is needle exchange?
Acknowledging these beliefs can make harm reduction services more effective, especially when working with faith-based organizations.
What are religion and spiritual beliefs?
This technique involves offering clean syringes and needles to people who inject drugs to prevent the transmission of diseases like HIV and hepatitis.
What is needle exchange or syringe service programs?
True or False: Individuals participating in harm reduction programs are not interested in recovery and prefer to continue using substances indefinitely.
False
(Thompson et al., 2023)
This harm reduction strategy involves providing safe spaces where individuals can use drugs under medical supervision to prevent overdose.
What are supervised injection sites?
Tailoring harm reduction efforts to meet this reality, which includes addressing financial barriers, ensures that services are accessible to low-income communities.
What are economic disparities?
This method allows individuals to test their substances for dangerous contaminants like fentanyl before using them.
What is drug checking or using fentanyl test strips?
True or False: Harm reduction approaches, such as safe consumption sites, do not increase drug use but instead lower overdose deaths and connect individuals to treatment services.
True
(Thompson et al., 2023)
This type of care encourages small, incremental steps towards improved health, rather than expecting immediate abstinence.
What is palliative care?
This type of trauma, often experienced by Indigenous and marginalized communities, requires harm reduction efforts to address past injustices.
What is historical and intergenerational trauma?
At these facilities, individuals can use drugs under medical supervision, helping to prevent fatal overdoses and providing a connection to other services.
What are supervised consumption sites or safe injection sites?
True or False: Providing naloxone leads to riskier drug use behaviors because users feel they can use more freely without consequences.
False
(Jones et al., 2017)
This life-saving medication is often provided in harm reduction kits to reverse opioid overdoses.
What is naloxone?
This factor refers to the negative beliefs held by some communities towards substance use, making individuals hesitant to seek harm reduction services.
What is Stigma?
This type of counseling is often paired with harm reduction approaches to increase motivation and readiness for change.
What is motivational interviewing?
True or False: Harm reduction approaches are only effective for certain types of drug users, particularly those addicted to opioids, and not for others.
False
(Ritter & Cameron, 2006)