Harm Reduction

Overview

Harm reduction is an evidence-based approach that prioritize education about practical skills and strategies that aim to reduce potential harm and increase individuals’ overall well-being. Individuals are provided with life-saving tools that reduce the risks of drug use, prevent overdose, improve health, and save lives. Harm reduction is also about connecting individuals to care and resources they may need to live healthy lives, including voluntary drug treatment, drugs like naloxone that can reverse an opioid overdose, drug checking (like fentanyl or xylazine test strips) that can detect adulteration in the drug supply, syringe exchange services that keep people from contracting infectious diseases, and stable housing. Effective harm reduction requires acknowledgment that individuals who experience or perpetrate violence, or both, are navigating social inequalities and other challenges like homelessness, poverty, and trauma that affect both people’s vulnerability to and capacity for effectively dealing with drug-related harm.

Programs