Harm Reduction

Harm Reduction: A Pragmatic, Clinical Model for the Treatment of Persons with Substance Use Disorders

We acknowledge for their contribution to this product:
Angelita Colón Ortiz, PsyD
Northeast & Caribbean Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network Team:
Ibis S. Carrión-González, Psy. D., Estela Besosa, M.H.S., L.P.C.

Know and understand Harm Reduction as a process of helping people with substance use disorders.
Establish the clinical aspects of Harm Reduction and how to implement them in the helping process.
Understand Harm Reduction from the standpoint of public health, and psychological and behavioral models of change.
Understand Harm Reduction as a process of directed change that is initiated and developed with a
solid therapeutic alliance.

SAMHSA Harm Reduction

Read the Harm Reduction Framework
The Framework informs SAMHSA's harm reduction activities moving forward, as well as related policies, programs, and practice. It will draw on evidence-based practices and principles.

Harm reduction emphasizes engaging directly with people who use drugs to prevent overdose and infectious disease transmission; improve physical, mental, and social wellbeing; and offer low barrier options for accessing health care services, including substance use and mental health disorder treatment.

Addictionary

If we want addiction destigmatized, we need a language that's unified.
The words we use matter. Caution needs to be taken, especially when the disorders concerned are heavily stigmatized as substance use disorders are.

Estigma y discriminación

Puntos destacados
A pesar de que los trastornos por consumo de drogas son enfermedades crónicas y tratables, los estudios indican que las personas con estos trastornos aún enfrentan discriminación y estigma (un conjunto de actitudes y estereotipos negativos) que pueden afectar su salud y bienestar de muchas maneras. El estigma también afecta a quienes consumen drogas pero no sufren un trastorno por consumo de drogas.

I'm Breaking Up With the Word 'Addict' and I Hope You'll Do the Same

Addiction and Recovery
By Meghan Ralston
"Addict'" is one of those words that so many of us use, largely without pausing to wonder if we should. We just take for granted that it's totally OK to describe a human being with one word, "addict" -- a word with overwhelmingly negative connotations to many people.

Media and the opioid epidemic

Photos reveal media’s softer tone on opioid crisis
By Michael Shaw
The racial bias is inescapable: A drug crisis that is largely affecting suburban and rural whites is being treated with a drastically different attitude and approach in words and imagery than those used to characterize heroin use in the 1970s, crack cocaine in the late 1980s, and the drug problem plaguing America’s people of color and urban poor today.

Reducción del estigma

Reducción del estigma: Cualquier persona puede tener una adicción
Una de cada 7 personas en los EE. UU. informa tener un trastorno por consumo de sustancias. No hay un factor motivador único que provoque la adicción. Algunas personas podrían usar drogas como ayuda para sobrellevar el estrés, un trauma o como ayuda con problemas de salud mental. Algunas podrían presentar trastorno por consumo de opioides después de usar indebidamente los opioides recetados por los médicos. En cualquier caso, el uso de drogas con el tiempo facilita la adicción.

Syringe Services Programs

Syringe Exchange Access

Stay Alive. Stay Safe.
An online and mail-based harm reduction service designed to reduce opioid overdose death, prevent injection-related disease transmission, and improve the lives of people who use drugs.

Faith in Harm Reduction

Mobilizing Spirit, Community & Power with the Harm Reduction Movement
Co-creating a justice movement which connects people who use drugs, people who do sex work, and communities of faith through the development of harm reduction centered spiritual resources, ritual support, and spiritual care.

Find Naloxone and Harm Reduction Programs In Your State

Harm Reduction Resources
Naloxone (Map)

Syringe Exchange Map- NASEN

A Dave Purchase Project
In 1988, Dave Purchase, began distributing syringes in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington, paving the way for the first legally operating SSP in the United States. Today, Dave Purchase Project (named for its founder) continues to operate the Tacoma Needle Exchange as well as the North American Syringe Exchange Network (NASEN), a program that supports operational SSPs through loan assistance, fiscal sponsorship, program start-up kits, and lower-cost harm reduction supplies through the NASEN Buyers Club. NASEN also maintains an online directory of syringe services programs (SSPs) in the United States, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The NASEN Directory, started in 1992, is the oldest and most comprehensive list of SEPs in the United States.

Stigma

Anti-Stigma Toolkit: A Guide to Reducing Behavioral Health Disorder Stigma

Authored originally by Mim Landry
Revised by Robert D. Ashford & Jenna Neasbitt

A toolkit for behavioral health prevention and treatment providers, recovery community organizations, and individuals in recovery with practical information and tools to enhance their capacity to engage in effective stigma reduction efforts.

To help you reach this goal, this guide will provide four components:

Chapter One provides a brief look at behavioral health-related stigma.
Chapter Two describes stigma reduction strategies and practical tips for implementing these

Chapter Three includes worksheets that accompany several of the strategies discussed in Chapter Two.
Chapter Four consists of resources and references that may assist in any efforts employed to prevent or reduce behavioral health-related stigma.

COVID-19 and the Latinx Community: Skills to reduce stress, stigma, and substance use [Factsheets]

COVID-19 y la comunidad Latinx: técnicas para reducir el estrés, estigma, y uso de sustancias ilícitas
COVID-19 sigue siendo un gran desafío en los EE.UU., El estrés que sienten todos es evidente. Los grupos raciales y minoritarios, como la comunidad Latinx, se ven afectados de manera desproporcionada por la pandemia. La comunidad Latinx enfrenta circunstancias, factores de estrés y estigma únicos durante estos tiempos difíciles.

I’m still a person: The Stigma of Substance Use & Power of Respect

There exist two versions of I’m Still a Person: The Stigma of Substance Use & Power of Respect – a General Public Education version and a Professional Education version.
You are holding a copy of the General Public Education version. This version is appropriate for anyone in the community interested in the topic of stigma related to substance use, including individuals and family members, as well as social work and physical or mental/behavioral health care professionals; people working in criminal justice, court, and child welfare systems; and, people involved with recovery support.

Reframing Language Guide

Reframing language: WHY CHANGING OUR THINKING, OUR ACTIONS AND OUR LANGUAGE MATTERS
The terms we use to describe mental illness matter. We have all heard derogatory terms used to describe someone who has a mental illness. Here are a few to jog your memory: Cuckoo; Mad as a hatter; Screwy – having a screw loose; Bananas; Loopy; Crackers; Wacko (whacko); Loony; Nuts; Freak; Crazy; Weirdo. Can you imagine mocking someone with an illness such as cancer or heart disease? Here's how we can do better.

The Cost of Stigma

The War on Drugs: Promoting stigma and discrimination
This briefing summarises these stigma and discrimination costs. There is naturally overlap with other areas of the Count the Costs project, including: security and development, human rights, crime, the environment, and economics. For briefings and a more extensive collection of resources on these costs, see www.countthecosts.org

Undoing Stigma- National Harm Reduction Coalition

Respect To Connect: Undergoing Stigma
This exercise can help us understand how approaching people who use drugs with perceptions rooted in stigma and control differ from an approach rooted in liberation and respect.

Beginning at the bottom of the tree, consider how different perceptions would impact core beliefs, and then our actions. When we shift our view to assume that people who use drugs know their own bodies, care for their loved ones and communities, are capable of making rational choices, and can be trusted, our capacity for connection and empathy grows.

SUD Stigma, Treatment, and Recovery for Hispanic/Latinos-Part 2

Stigma focus, types of stigma, stigma index, using appropriate language
Overdose Rapid Response and Prevention Program
UTHSC San Antonio - Project Vida
Dr. Fernando J. González
May 2, 2023

Learning Series in Spanish Objectives:

Identify the impact of Opioids and Fentanyl among Hispanic /Latino adults in the U.S
Recognize the impact of treatment for an SUD
Understand Stigma and how it manifests
Recognize the importance of using nonstigmatizing language for people who have an SUD

SUD Stigma, Treatment, and Recovery for Hispanic/Latinos-Part 3

Treatment options, cultural considerations - recovery through the lens of Latinos/Hispanics
Overdose Rapid Response and Prevention Program
UTHSC San Antonio - Project Vida
Dr. Fernando J. González
May 9, 2023

Learning Series in Spanish Objectives:

Identify the impact of Opioids and Fentanyl among Hispanic /Latino adults in the U.S
Recognize the impact of treatment for an SUD
Understand Stigma and how it manifests
Recognize the importance of using nonstigmatizing language for people who have an SUD

Changing Language to Change Care: Stigma and Substance Use Disorders

Goals
1. Increase knowledge about stigma and discrimination and ways to combat them
2. Expand the focus on language around substance use, mental illness, and HIV/AIDS

Objectives

Define stigma and types of stigma
Define discrimination
Reflect on the impact of stigma, both personally and
professionally
Identify examples of stigmatizing language, behaviors, and
institutional practice