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Self-Reflections on Self-Determination in Harm Reduction
When I was a social work student in the early 1960s, I assumed that it was imperative, even obligatory, that I respect the right of client self-determination, but I certainly didn’t know how to put self-determination into practice. I was placed at Henry Street Settlement and worked with two...
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Drug and Alcohol Prevention Education for Specialized Populations
Evidence based practice curricula for drug and alcohol prevention education in the United States are designed for high-school and college age individuals. However, it is the philosophy of our program that prevention can be provided, and have an impact, throughout the life span of an individual. It...
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CoveCare and MHA Putnam Team up to Provide Continuity and Services
CoveCare Center and the Mental Health Association in Putnam (MHA) have formed an affiliation that will leverage the strengths of both organizations in order to continue and grow the robust mental health services available to residents of Putnam and neighboring counties. Through this partnership,...
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Harm Reduction: Theory and Practice
If we want to reduce the harm that derives from psychoactive substances, we need to begin by ending two ineffective, enduring and hugely expensive policies and practices in this country. Then we can get to true harm reduction. The first are strategies that seek to control access to and...
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Through Health Care System Integration
In many communities, harm reduction programs have helped prevent overdoses, lower HIV risk and hepatitis transmission and open the door to treatment for substance users. Originally started in the late 1980s, harm reduction approaches introduced syringe exchange initiatives with the goal of reducing...
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Boulevard Outpatient Stabilization Program
According to the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (2016), facilities were asked how many patients in treatment on 03/21/16 received MAT for detoxification and maintenance purposes. Within this survey, MAT includes the use of methadone and buprenorphine for the treatment of...
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Finding the Right Recovery Path: Welcoming Everyone into Treatment
This nation is in an epidemic. There are no two ways about it. By now you have undoubtedly heard that more people died of overdose in New York State in 2016 than died of motor vehicle accidents, homicide and suicide, combined. In responding to this crisis, we do not have the luxury of closing our...
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NYS OMH ACT Teams Utilize Harm Reduction Techniques
Harm Reduction can be a useful tool to help address potentially risky, dangerous, or self-destructive behaviors, including drug addiction, unsafe sexual activities, self-harm, and binge eating. The goal of harm reduction is to make dangerous behaviors safer, and to reduce the level of harmful...
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Supervised Injection Facilities: A Logical Progression in Harm Reduction or a Bridge Too Far?
The scourge of opiate abuse continues to rage unabated. It claimed 42,000 lives in 2016, more than in any previous year (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). That’s 115 human lives per day. Five of our brothers and sisters are lost each hour. One of our parents, spouses, sons or...
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Crisis Respite: An Effective Intervention in the Continuum of Recovery
Think about your work with a client with a psychiatric diagnosis in emotional crisis. Did your client get what they needed at an emergency room? Or, after hours of waiting, were they told they were well enough to deal with it at home, perhaps by themselves? A peer-run Crisis Respite stay is an...
