harm reduction - search results

[…] an initiative that can’t happen soon enough, says Ifor Glyn  There is a growing acceptance and evidence that providing safe and supervised injecting centres is a recognised harm reduction initiative that can lead to saving lives, encourage engagement with treatment services, and help reduce HIV and hepatitis C infections. They also address public concerns about […]

[…] in years, Europe has been able to gather together an experienced group of advocates to form a motivated, innovative and forward thinking activist group interested in implementing harm reduction policy and practice across the EU. The group is called The European Network of People who Use Drugs (EuroNPUD). We began in 2010/11 when EuroNPUD received […]

Around 99 per cent of people who inject drugs live in countries that are failing to provide adequate harm reduction services, says a new report from UNAIDS. Despite overall new HIV infections declining globally, infection rates among people who use drugs remain unchanged, says Health, rights and drugs: harm reduction, decriminalisation and zero discrimination for […]

[…] hears from anti-smoking charity ASH on why, perhaps surprisingly, it thinks the plan is misguided Although the treatment sector is slightly less polarised than it was, the harm reduction/abstinence argument has raged for so long that’s it’s become the field’s background music. So it’s interesting to see similar debates played out – sometimes bitterly – […]

[…] the JunkiesBond are vibrant, active user led organisations to this day. In the UK, informed user activists emerged to be directly involved in the foundation of the harm reduction movement during the 1980s, in Liverpool, London and Manchester. Today this is reflected in the UK Harm Reduction Alliance and user groups’ and advocates’ open espousal […]

[…] on to the doctor for treatment with antibiotics. He then continued his journey to a specialist treatment service, and then on to a local needle exchange and harm reduction service. This seemed to demonstrate perfectly that I had achieved standard AA1. I used my experience from this episode for my portfolio, by giving a brief […]

[…] year begins on a positive note with the second DDN/Alliance service user conference, Voices for choices, a vibrant day of debate in Birmingham. Meanwhile, the abstinence versus harm reduction argument rumbles on in our letters pages following a piece by Professor Neil McKeganey, and the government finally reclassifies cannabis to class B despite last-minute attempts […]

[…] as contractinb COVID. There had been impressive collaboration within the sector, and some innovative developments includinb triallinb a ‘click and collect’ model for needles and other eissential harm reduction equipment. But there was also an increase in mental health issues from the boredom, loneliness and a situation that ‘has been really toubh for everybody’. ‘We’ve […]

DDN reports from the 2013 NNEF annual meeting in Bournemouth, which has become a keenly anticipated fixture for information and ideas.  Keeping harm reduction at the heart of drug strategy was a key concern of the National Needle Exchange Forum (NNEF)’s annual meeting. This year it was held in Bournemouth and drew enthusiastic attendance from needle exchange workers […]

Photo by Baim Hanif on Unsplash Release’s Laura Garius discusses why universities must adopt harm reduction. It’s time to adopt a harm-reduction approach to student drug use. Despite decades of universities taking the ‘just say no’ approach, and with some actively pursuing an idealistic ‘drug-free campus‘, research shows that the majority of students have, or […]

The growing popularity of ketamine use is not matched by knowledge within treatment services. Sara Woods went to harm reductionists Mat Southwell and Amy Massey for some clear and informed advice. Ketamine is popular in a few regional pockets in England. It is particularly prevalent at squat parties in the big cities and the more […]

[…] being given arbitrary changes to their treatment plans related to what their commissioners would prefer to provide.’ Changes in treatment and a focus on recovery had sidelined harm reduction, and there was pressure on services to achieve ‘drug-free exits’. So what should we be doing? Two of the clearest practical steps were to invest in […]

[…] to have a big pile of dead bodies before anything happens,’ he said. ‘No one’s taking this as seriously as we should be.’ He recommended an emergency harm reduction plan that included drug-checking in every city and town, with test strips available for different drugs. Supervised drug consumption facilities should also be rolled out nationally […]

[…] found that the number of rough sleepers with a drvug problem had increased from 50 per cent to 60 per cent in just four years. IT'S ABOUT HARM REDUCTION ‘Getting out as much nalobone as possible to peovple who don’t necessarily engage vwith standard services is really important,’ says Megan Nash, team lveader for WDP’s […]

[…] HIV in Europe. Her service, Metzineres, was responsive – an innovative, daring, non-profit cooperative, providing a sheltered environment exclusively for women. ‘It covers the full spectrum of harm reduction approaches,’ she said. Being effective meant breaking protocols. The Metzineres model provided consistency while being reliable, pragmatic and cost effective. Above all, it welcomed all women […]

[…] shift’, she states, but that doesn’t mean that all countries are moving in the same direction. ‘Russia is absolutely entrenched in complete rejection of any kind of harm reduction, for example,’ she says. ‘Human rights NGOs are being shut down on a daily basis, and last year they asked USAID and other multi-lateral bodies to […]

[…] to enrol in drug treatment services. In fact, the majority of people who use drugs won’t need the support these services primarily offer, but would benefit from harm reduction support. Unfortunately, most harm reduction services in England are built into drug treatment services that people don’t feel comfortable accessing. Some people who contact Release also […]

[…] with to deal with addiction? Well, is providing needles, methadone and Subutex in effect treatment? To further confuse, controlled alcohol consumption is encouraged under the name of harm reduction. (Where’s the alcoholic who will only drink half of his bottle for that day?) To aid our financial dilemma, we wrote to the minister in the […]

Life and death Harm reduction at international level goes beyond choice One slightly built young woman trembled on the platform at the International Harm Reduction Conference. She was introduced as a passionate campaigner for drug users’ rights and a harm reduction pioneer, preventing overdose with naloxone in Cambodia. But when it came to Srey Mao’s turn to […]

[…] other entertainment mean that young people are once again turning to outdoor partying on a large scale. Drug services are going to have to get creative about harm reduction, says Kevin Flemen. In many post-apocalyptic films there’s an unbearably naff sequence where everyone has a party. It’s like The Matrix Reloaded ‘Zion dance party’ and […]

[…] for shared care were poly or chaotic drug users, said Dr Janikiewicz, as treatment could be far more complicated than for straightforward opiate use. Encourage GPs towards harm reduction Primary and secondary care have very different ways of working, but shared care is getting bigger, according to Suzanne Corrigan. A shared care co-ordinator at Brent […]

[…] users in the south of the county. It is a respected mouthpiece and also a way of highlighting service gaps and giving feedback on training, conferences and harm reduction initiatives. Have you any tips for others starting a group? Be realistic, don’t overstretch yourselves, and decide on a name and an identity. Look at what […]

[…] and alcohol work. From learning ‘the basics’ to getting hands-on experience of some of the fundamental activities undertaken by drug and alcohol-workers (such as handling risk, assessment, harm reduction, care planning and reviews), participants will leave the training with a good grasp of many of the underpinning knowledge and skills required in drug and alcohol […]

[…] concerns are taken notice of. Manjit highlights a publicity campaign to reach carers, which leads them to a support group facilitated by Adfam. There’s also a new harm reduction campaign, where 12 ser vice users have been trained to give overdose and harm reduction information to ser vice users in the community, including how to […]

[…] ‘At this time I was the drug czar. He asked me, “why aren’t smokers in jail?” It was the human rights angle, the ‘emotional momentum’ that introduced harm reduction services, including needle exchanges and outreach. As president of Caso Drug Users Union, Rui Coimbra Morais had witnessed the evolution of the decriminalisation model in Portugal […]

[…] ns.o rg KEY Alcohol training:Includes identification and brief advice (IBA) and brief            interventions Complementary training: Includes hypnotherapy, acupuncture, holistic            treatments, wellbeing and nutrition Workforce development: Includes better standards training and preparing           for CQC registration Drug training: Includes stimulant use, opiates and smoking Dual diagnosis: Co-existence of a mental disorder and substance misuse disorder Criminal justice: Includes probation, police and prison Psychsocial therapies: Includes CBT, counselling, 12-step programmes,            behavioural train  ing, anger management, motivational training and           psychometric screening Family support: Includes family patterns, systemic theory and family meetings Harm reduction: Includes safer injectingbsmokingbdrinking, BBV Service user training: Includes mentoring, volunteering, basic skills Assessed: Is the participant evaluated or assessed?  Accreditation: Is this accredited training?  DANOS: Is all or part of this training mapped to DANOS? PT:  Part time  FT:   Full time  DL:  Distancebe-Learning Qualifications BSc:  Bachelor of Science BA:  Bachelor of the Arts MSc:  Master of Science  PGDip: Postgraduate Diploma PGCert:  Postgraduate Certificate […]

Just 4 per cent of the worldwide total of drug users living with HIV are receiving antiretroviral therapy, according to Harm Reduction International’s (HRI) latest Global state of harm reduction report, while just 8 per cent of the world’s injecting drug users are estimated to be able to access opioid substitution therapy. On a ‘global […]

Unlike in England, drug deaths in Wales have been falling since 2010 – a result that can be traced to Welsh public health policy and harm reduction practice, say Josie Smith and Chris Emmerson    As previously reported in DDN (October, page 4), according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), a total […]

[…] support to people experiencing issues around drug and alcohol use. Likewise is a partnership between national charity Humankind and Project 6. One aspect of this support is harm reduction, which includes equipping people who use drugs, their friends, loved ones and professionals with naloxone kits and training them to use the medication effectively in an […]

[…] until 6 August at www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-ng10086 Related articles (Features, August 2023): DDN visited the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw to hear about the challenges of mainstreaming tobacco harm reduction. (News, August 2023): 40 per cent of smokers in the UK think that vaping is ‘as or more risky’ compared to smoking up from 27% last year. (Features, […]

[…] Why are ‘risky’ and ‘unpleasant’ new versions of cannabis replacing the real thing? Adam Winstock shares findings from the Global Drug Survey. For the last decade much about harm reduction for cannabis was pretty straightforward. Nothing much had changed apart from the dominance of high potency herbal cannabis and its association with higher rates of paranoia, […]

The day’s second session explored the countless benefits and opportunities of partnership working. ‘I’ve lost a lot of people who drug treatment doesn’t work for,’ harm reduction content creator at Cranstoun, Alistair Bryant, told delegates. ‘If you can get to any of our doors, you’re already halfway through what you need to do. I think it’s […]

Universities should be focusing on a harm-reduction approach to drug use among students rather than a ‘zero tolerance’ attitude, according to a report from Universities UK (UUK), a collective of more than 140 universities.  Twelve per cent of students reported having taken a drug in the last year More than 4,000 students were surveyed […]

[…]   Chief executive of Change Grow Live, Mark Moody ‘We welcome the major step forward that this strategy signals for the long-term future of drug treatment and harm reduction. We back the strategy’s acknowledgment that addiction must be treated as a chronic health condition. This is a significant breakthrough for drug treatment and a critical […]

Thirty years after Michael Linnell’s first graphic  harm reduction campaigns burst onto the scene he recalls the outrage – and the results – that spurred him on In March 1985 I answered an advert in The Guardian. A small drugs charity called Lifeline was looking for an artist, and they gave the job to me. Over […]

[…] www.alcoholconcern.org.uk News |Round-up www.drinkanddrugs.net 30 January 2006 | drinkanddrugsnews| 5 A rushed decision by the World Health Organisation to reschedule buprenorphine is being contested by the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA). WHO’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) has included a ‘final decision’ on rescheduling the drug on the agenda of its meeting on 28-31 […]

Launch of Drink Drug Hub website provides reliable harm reduction information for anyone in North Yorkshire. Not every person who drinks or uses drugs develops harmful patterns of use – but drink and drugs can cause lots of people lots of problems. By providing reliable and accurate information, we can help adults and young people […]

[…] Kent TN27 0LT From the letters page DDN October2019 Thorny issues I was happy to see a strapline on last month’s DDN that promotes the rebirth of harm reduction activism, though who knows where the money will come from for that. And then I turn the page and read the ‘Post-its from practice’. What has […]

[…] developing a myster y shopper pro- gramme, based on members’ evidence. ‘Ser vices say that key workers spend an hour with each client – 20 minutes doing harm reduction, 20 minutes doing social development, this sor t of stuff,’ says Corfield. ‘But we keep hearing that clients are kept waiting for 55 minutes, seen for […]

‘Disinvestment in harm reduction is deeply damaging’ As 2017 draws to a close we look back at a year of diminishing budgets and record drug-related deaths. While local authorities get to grips with cutting £85m from public health spending, the ACMD warned that slashing drug treatment budgets is a ‘catalyst for disaster’. Throughout the year […]

[…] S k ills ( C BC S) A lc o h ol, D ru gs & H arm R ed uctio n P sy c h op harm aco lo gy & P hysio lo gy o f A ddic tio n W ork in g w it h C hild B earin g […]

Delegates at the National Needle Exchange Forum’s annual conference heard inspiring examples of taking harm reduction to the next level. James Pierce reports.  Photography by nigelbrunsdon.com More than 200 delegates from all over the UK returned to Birmingham for the National Needle Exchange Forum’s (NNEF) annual meeting in December. Perhaps the most important part of […]

[…] organisation called Stop Watch, which was trying to change the narrative around stop and search, including tackling the ‘massive disproportionality in relation to drugs’. Maria Phelan of Harm Reduction International (HRI) widened the view to the global state of harm reduction. While there had been progress on opioid substitution therapy (OST) in Monaco, Senegal and […]

[…] anti-social behaviour brought on by binge-drinking. Launched this week, the campaign has three main concerns: anti-social behaviour and nuisance in the area; drinkers getting injured, attacked or harming others; and drinking among young people. Community safety manager for Brighton and Hove, Linda Beanlands, said: ‘Tackling alcohol misuse is a priority and we are working […]

[…] with 4,859 deaths registered in 2021. This is the highest number since records began, and almost 50 per cent of those deaths involved an opiate. Without the harm reduction interventions of providers like Turning Point, the situation would be significantly worse, but we see that there is still a long way to go and that […]

[…] DRUGS PRACTITIONER (REF: TH 003) Salary:£24,708 - £28,221 (SCP 31-36) inclusive of Inner London Weighting and pro-rata 28 hrs The postholder will undertake targeted outreach and deliver harm reduction information, advice and referral to treatment services. This post is for a one-year fixed term contract and then subject to further review. TRAINING OFFICER (REF: TH […]

[…] Kent TN24 8SG. Letters may be edited for space or clarity. Vital challenge Kaleidoscope was one of the original drug services in England, and a pioneer of harm reduction services, campaigning against long waiting lists by providing rapid access to treatment. Over time local authorities improved the services to their own drug using population and […]

[…] their drugs to Addaction’s service in Weston-super-Mare for the contents to be tested. The service is completely anonymous, with staff available to discuss support options and offer harm reduction advice. The pilot project will operate in partnership with the University of Hertfordshire, with additional support from drug testing service The Loop. The testing process takes […]

Harm Reduction International is a leading non-governmental organisation working to promote and expand support for harm reduction. DDN Magazine has produced several reports on their events that you can view here.

[…] said. The nine-day event saw 11 resolutions passed on issues including protecting young people from online sales of NPS and blocking ‘financial flows’ linked to drug trafficking. Harm Reduction International (HRI), meanwhile, used the CND to launch its ‘10 by 20’ campaign, which wants to see governments redirect 10 per cent of the money they […]

[…] and £15 per spin, as well as a further consultation on ‘greater protections’ for 18- to 24-year-olds ‘Frictionless’ player protection checks to kick in before ‘unaffordable or harmful’ losses are incurred A new industry ombudsman to deal with disputes and rule on redress where customers suffer losses ‘due to an operator failing in their […]

A wide-ranging study has found ‘no clear evidence’ of changing alcohol consumption patterns among people drinking at harmful levels since the introduction of MUP, according to a report from Public Health Scotland (PHS). Some ‘economically vulnerable’ groups were also spending less on essentials like food and utilities and more on alcohol, the report adds. […]

[…] years, Daren Garratt told the National Drug Treatment Conference last week – a statement frequently reflected in our letters pages. It was interesting then to read Sara Moralioglu’s investigation of harm reduction in North America (page 8) – a story made all the more remarkable by the scale of progress – particularly in the United States, where the climate of incarceration […]

[…] it set out to do – a reduction in sales overall with a focus on the cheap high-strength alcohol, which is often drunk by people drinking at harmful levels,’ she said. ‘Further studies on MUP, including a final evaluation report, which is due next year, will examine how MUP has impacted on alcohol harms.’ […]

[…] has called for music festivals to provide drug safety testing facilities ‘as standard’, as the summer festival season gets underway. The organisation also wants to see the harm reduction measure implemented in city nightlife areas. The call follows concerns about increasing purity levels of club drugs, with tests ‘repeatedly’ reporting ecstasy pills containing 150g and […]

[…] provision has been launched by Humankind. The standards support compliance with existing regulation and national guidance, and are designed to ‘ensure full and equitable reach of comprehensive harm reduction services to all who use substances’ and to tackle stigma. The standards cover issues like accessibility, confidentiality, safety and pathways to other services, and are part […]

[…] February 2019, page 16), raised many questions – why don’t we take notice of the evidence to stop ‘thoroughly preventable’ drug poisoning deaths with simple and cost-effective harm reduction measures such as naloxone? Why are we still discharging from hospital onto the street? Why are care pathways so fragmented? Why aren’t we creating routes out […]

[…] two, the Healthy Options Team (HOT), is par t of East London and City Mental Health NHS Trust and employs around 12 staff to provide low threshold, harm reduction ser vices such as needle exchange. The other organisation, KCA, is a non-statutor y ser vice employing about 200 staff across Kent, Medway and par ts […]

[…] use in their own way to influence governments, donors, policy makers, the media and the general public. Support. Don’t Punish is part of the Community Action on Harm Reduction project (www.cahrproject.org), an ambitious, four-year project which aims to expand HIV and harm reduction services to more than 180,000 people who inject drugs in China, India, […]

[…] clu des f a m ily  p atte rn s,  s y ste m ic  t h eo ry  a n d f a m ily  m eetin gs Harm  r e d u ctio n : In clu des s a fe r i n je ctin gbs m okin gbd rin kin g,  B BV Se […]