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Set Recovery Goals
Published in Sandra Rasmussen, Developing Competencies for Recovery, 2023
On December 8, 2021, the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced a $30 million harm reduction grant funding opportunity to help address the nation’s substance use and overdose epidemic. According to SAMHSA: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is now accepting applications for the first-ever SAMHSA Harm Reduction grant program and expects to issue $30 million in grant awards. This funding, authorized by the American Rescue Plan, will help increase access to a range of community harm reduction services and support harm reduction service providers as they work to help prevent overdose deaths and reduce health risks often associated with drug use. SAMHSA will accept applications from State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments, Tribal organizations, non-profit community-based organizations, and primary and behavioral health organizations.SAMHSA will distribute $10 million per year over the next three years. Grant recipients must use the funds to support harm reduction services. Harm reduction service providers will be asked to develop or expand evidence-based services that may include, but not be limited to the provision of sterile syringes, safe sex kits, prevention education about synthetic opioids and other substances, overdose prevention kits including naloxone distribution, peer worker engagement, medical services, case management and referral to treatment. Warm handoffs that facilitate engagement in care and referrals to treatment for individuals seeking these support services are also critical components of this grant program. Harm reduction services will be trauma-informed and guided by harm reduction stakeholder groups and other community members.(SAMHSA 2021b)This unprecedented grant employs harm reduction strategies to combat opioid abuse, including funding for needle exchanges and fentanyl test strips. Funds will not be used for supervised injection sites, which have been the subject of litigation across the country. This funding, provided by the American Rescue Plan, will help increase access to a range of community harm reduction services, and it will support harm reduction service providers as they work to help prevent overdose deaths and reduce health risks often associated with drug use.
The Ethical Defensibility of Harm Reduction and Eating Disorders
Published in The American Journal of Bioethics, 2021
Andria Bianchi, Katherine Stanley, Kalam Sutandar
Harm reduction is a term that is typically used in discussions regarding persons with substance use disorders (SUDs). It is defined as “a philosophy and an approach to policy, programs, and practices that aims to reduce the health, social, and economic harms associated with the use of psychoactive substances in people unwilling or unable to stop” (Buchman and Lynch 2018). Harm reduction has gained recent widespread attention across North America as a result of the opioid epidemic (Global Commission on Drug Policy 2017). Instead of reprimanding persons who use drugs and demanding them to abstain from using illicit substances, some cities have instead started to open supervised injection sites, provide education around safe drug use, etc. (Warnica and Hauen 2017).5 The purpose of a harm reduction approach is not to completely “extinguish the problematic health behaviors completely or permanently” (Hawk et al. 2017), but rather to mitigate the possibility and severity of the potential harm(s).6
Opioid harm reduction: A scoping review of physician and system-level gaps in knowledge, education, and practice
Published in Substance Abuse, 2022
Emma Gugala, Owanate Briggs, Leticia R. Moczygemba, Carolyn M. Brown, Lucas G. Hill
In a search for alternative solutions to improve opioid-related mortality, health professionals have placed an increasing emphasis on harm reduction. These interventions include needle exchange programs, supervised injection sites, naloxone distribution, and medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). A 2018 study of 17,568 opioid overdose survivors found that the administration of MOUD agents is associated with a reduction in all-cause and opioid-related mortality.6 The success of harm reduction, when compared to supply reduction, highlights the need for increased knowledge and engagement with these strategies amongst US public health professionals.7
From Dark Dens to Suburban Townhouses: Creating a Centralized System for Prescription Opiate Monitoring to Combat the Addiction Epidemic in the United States
Published in Journal of Legal Medicine, 2018
Over the last two decades, Switzerland and other countries have created a people-centered approach to heroin abuse.149Ruth Dreifuss, The Secret to Fighting U.S. Heroin Epidemic,CNN (updated Apr. 19, 2016, 4:54 PM), http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/19/opinions/preventing-heroin-overdose-u-n-drugs-dreifuss/. The Switzerland federal government focused on harm reduction by “creating supervised injection sites and offering substance analysis services and access to opiate substitution therapy, mainly through methadone and even medical heroin.”150Id. In the first decade of this approach, drug-related deaths reduced 50%, and “1,300 dependent users are now given maintenance doses of heroin via 23 specialized clinics, which has resulted in an 82% drop in patients selling heroin on the streets.”151Id. In March 2016, Boston opened a similar safe room on their famous “Methadone Mile” for addicts to attend when coming down from a high.152Martha Bebinger, Boston's Heroin Users Will Soon Get a Safer Place to be High, NPR (Mar. 1, 2016, 4:50 AM), http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/01/468572534/bostons-heroin-users-will-soon-get-a-safer-place-to-be-high. The room provides a nurse and comfy seating for addicts to use while they ride out their highs.153Id. Boston already had a needle exchange program and a methadone clinic available.