Harm reduction programs

@chocolate201314 I live in Toronto, the largest city in Canada so our programs are somewhat progressive but still have a long way to go! Naloxone, the shot/spray that saves someones life when they are overdosing, is available and free to anyone who wants one from many pharmacies and in community health centres. This is a direct result of an overdose epidemic we have been having. New needles and safe smoking equipment can be gotten for free from many community health centres and addiction programs. This is to prevent the spread of blood-borne diseases. Three supervised injection sites have been approved, and are currently being built to reduce some of the harms of drug using like overdose (because a nurse is close by). There is methadone and suboxone treatment available for those who would like to reduce the amount of drugs they are using or would like to stop using street drugs. Getting onto methadone and suboxone treatment is still rather dificult. Diecetylmorphine treatment is not readily available but has shown great success in other places. The city generally accepts the 'housing first model' which emphasizes the importance of getting people housed and supporting them in any other ways, including in drug use, however housing is still a very big issue as there is a lack of affordable housing and the vacancy rate in the city is very low. There is some drug-checking in some places, but it is not really available. Finally, cannabis will be legalized next summer, which will reduce the criminalization of drug users and the harms that come with criminalization. So, on the whole, we are better than the Philippines, who is actively hunting down and killing drug users vigilante style, but we still have a long way to go to truely approaching drug use using a 'harm reduction' method. I have known three people personally who have died from overdose this year.

A harm reduction programe game me back my quality of life. I can't ever speak too highly of them! I wish they were more wide spread, and had less stigma attached to them.

Harm reduction progrmes like HAMS: Harm Reduction help a lot of people. If your interested, take a look at their site: https://hams.cc/ It has lots of valueable information on there!

Unforutunately in Florida we are lacking in HR programs. i'm working to try and lobby for some.

In Alberta, my city just opened it's first supervised consumption site. It's only been open for just over a month and it's already prevented dozens of ODs. There's also a program operated by our provincial health services that offers harm reduction services to the addiction population including clean needles and other consumption supplies, safer sex supplies, HIV, hepatitis and STI testing, vaccinations, counselling, and referals to other health services. They also operate a peer volunteer group that does street outreach work.

Alongside provincial programs, there are several other local grassroots organizations, one of which I've been a volunteer with for nearly two years now. I'm a volunteer peer educator and harm reduction worker for our local chapter of Dancesafe, which caters to the electronic music and rave community. I also run the social media outlets and outreach. I love it so much :)

There are several growing and highly successful programs in the greater Chicago area. Two that blow me away are Connect For Life Naperville, and Live4Lali. Connect is through the police department and is a community project to avoid jail and get anyone who turns themselves in, even with drugs on them, assessed and into treatment within 24 hrs. ODs are treated the same way, with social worker follow-up with them & family/supporters, so after detox theres no further OD that may be fatal.

Live4Lali is family-based and founded. They provide harm reduction training (train the trainer format) and provide kits plus give drug education across the country. They hold grief support meetings, have a walk-in assessment program and create community for change. Beautiful!

make more online live help availble, such as chats or crisis lines, these can be life savers.

i live in a small town where people don't even believe in abuse , they tell you to "pray" or "get over it".

they don't want to talk about it, have little knowledge

I went to a rape crisis center and after speaking to me for 1 hour, therapist turned me away for a support group !

Talk about zero sensitivity ! what a bitch. I did not get her name. After that I knew there was no support for RAPE in my town. I just go online now.

I moved here from a major big city where we have hundreds of support groups and everyone spoke freely of abuse etc. It was so freeing. This helped me a great deal.

Rape and sex abuse is real. You need to educate all school teachers, counselors, employer human resources, therapists, ministers, doctors how to deal with this, specific cures, sensitivity, how to provide anonymity, safety, respect, proactive safety programs. Educate the entire community.

This is why rape victims keep quiet, because there is not even a term for it. Because no one talks about it. Create public service announcements like no smoking, drugs or drinking campaigns.

I know there is a harm reduction service in the country where I live, and although I haven't managed to assess it yet, I know someone who has and found it useful. It's called extern.org. From what I understand they provide both support and Naloxone Training.