Harm reduction is a strategy used to reduce the negative effects of substance use. This January, L.A. CADA's is focusing on how we can work together to improve community health through use of this evidence-based practice. Harm reduction strategies include:

• Improving access to opioid overdose reversal treatments. The FDA encourages the community to take actionable steps to encourage harm reduction by supporting the availability and accessibility of overdose reversal drugs, including naloxone.
• Use of Fentanyl Testing Strips (FTS) in community and clinical settings. The presence of fentanyl mixed with other types of drugs creates a significant risk of accidental overdose that is often hard to detect. The FDA and drug treatment experts support the use of rapid-acting fentanyl test strips in helping people to acknowledge and modify drug use behaviors.
• Syringe services programs. Known as SSPs, these services help reduce injection-related health risks through the availability of sterile syringes and proper equipment for every injection. The CDC-SAMHSA Harm Reduction Technical Assistance Program has implemented a national SSP monitoring and evaluation program to support the use of best practices for patient navigation from SSPs to community-based health and social services.
• Implementing Comprehensive HIV Services in Syringe Services Program (SSP) Settings. People who inject drugs are at high risk for contracting the HIV virus. Even those who do not inject are at higher risk due to unsafe behaviors when high. Providing HIV services for education, testing, and counseling helps drug users in our community to reduce the risk of contracting and spreading HIV and other infectious disease.
• Mobile Education and Outreach. Taking harm reduction education and engagement services directly to those most at risk is a central strategy of harm reduction. Peer outreach workers with lived experience in harm reduction and recovery can deliver meaningful services in homeless encampments, community streets, parks, and other sites where people gather.

L.A CADA provide naloxone and harm reduction outreach in the communities we serve. We're here for you at (562) 906-2676.

Harm reduction strategies are most commonly used to reduce the negative effects of substance use. For years, L.A. County and much of the U.S. have seen wave after wave of overdose deaths from prescription and illegal versions of powerful drugs called opioids, often used in combination with other drugs. To address this epidemic, harm reduction uses a range of strategies to promote safer drug use, managed use, abstinence, services that meet people who use drugs "where they're at," and to address conditions of use along with the use itself.

Because harm reduction demands that interventions and policies designed to serve people who use drugs reflect specific individual and community needs, there is no universal definition of or formula for implementing harm reduction. To guide us, the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) considers the following eight principles central to harm reduction practice:

1. Acceptance. Addiction and its associated harmful behaviors are part of life. Instead of ignoring and condemning those who suffer from substance use, this principle encourages people to work together - respectfully and compassionately -- to minimize the negative effects.
2. There are safer ways to use drugs. Drug use is a complex phenomenon that involves a range of behaviors, from severe use to zero-tolerance of drugs. By meeting people where they are at the moment, providers can help patients reduce their use and risks, while improving their health and hygiene.
3. One size doesn't fit all. Rather than trying abstinence on people, it's better to meet people where they are in their journey towards recovery. It's crucial to let them set their own goals so they feel more autonomy when it comes to their body and their recovery.
4. Don't Pass Judgement. Harm reduction uses a non-judgmental and non-coercive approach. Providers work to recognize the improvement in people's choices, praising them for making strides even if they are still using.
5. Affirm the patient. People often get discouraged when they try to reduce their drug use. It's important to support participants, working with them to be proactive and plan for relapses, and to build their confidence and speak up if a treatment method isn't working for them.
6. The power of helping others. People are capable of being allies to those around them, even as they navigate their own battles. People with addiction, also known as peers, are not "broken" and can be helpful to others even when not fully sober.
7. Other factors matter. Poverty, social class, past trauma, and other variables all factor in the success of addiction treatment. It's important to understand that everyone has lived a different life and will respond in their own way.
8. Harm reduction does not encourage drug use. Using a compassionate approach to treating addiction does not mean pretending drugs are fine in small amounts or without risks. As with the abstinence approach, the end goal of treatment is for people to be healthy, happy, and, most importantly, sober.

If you want help for drug use, L.A. CADA is here for you. Call us at (562) 906-2676.

To address this epidemic, harm reduction incorporates a range of strategies that include safer drug use, managed use, abstinence, services that meet people who use drugs "where they're at," and addressing conditions of use along with the use itself. Because harm reduction demands that interventions and policies designed to serve people who use drugs reflect specific individual and community needs, there is no universal definition of or formula for implementing harm reduction.

However, National Harm Reduction Coalition considers the following principles central to harm reduction practice:

And if you need help with alcohol, drugs, or mental health issues, call us at (562) 906-2676.

The start of a new year in January is a good time to review ways we can work together to improve community health. Evidence-based practices or EBPs lead the way to methods that are proven to work as a result of various studies. One of these EBPs is harm reduction.

Harm reduction is an umbrella term for interventions used to reduce the problematic effects of negative behaviors. Although harm reduction was originally and is most frequently associated with substance use, it is increasingly being applied to other behavioral disorders, including tobacco use and the spread of infectious disease. Rather than attempt to stamp out all high-risk habits, harm reduction accepts that these things will always exist and instead works to improve the quality of life for affected people and communities. The idea is to help an individual lower their chances of getting hospitalized or dying.

To understand this EBP, we should know the six pillars of harm reduction set forth by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA):

1. The harm reduction movement is led by people who use drugs (PWUD) with have lived experience of drug use.
2. Harm reduce embraces the inherent value of human beings and their right to be treated with dignity, respect, and positive regard.
3. Harm reduction commits to deep community engagement and community building.
4. Harm reduction promotes equity, rights, and reparative social justice.
5. Harm reduction services are low-barrier services: they are easily accessible and non-coercive.
6. Harm reduction is driven by person-centered positive change in the individual's quality of life as defined by each individual.

During the month of January, L.A. CADA will be providing more information on the use of harm reduction. And if you need help with alcohol, drugs, or mental health issues, call us at (562) 906-2676.