STAY IN THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS FOR HEALTH, PEACE, AND YOGA
Harm reduction, a term often used in discussions of drug users and prostitutes. Rather than taking a moralistic approach, or focusing on punishment and rehabilitation, the harm reduction approach tries to reduce the harm that comes to such offenders. Harm reduction policies are meant to manage behaviors such as recreational drug use and sexual activity in numerous risky settings. A vast majority of harm reduction initiatives are educational campaigns that aim to reduce drug-related harm.
Harm reduction example, providing drug users with clean needles, or perhaps with a safe place to shoot-up, or even to provide them with standardized heroin. The community could provide a safe area for prostitutes to work, and provide free testing for infectious diseases. All of this will result in harm reduction to the ‘offenders’ but in the long-term should also reduce harm to the community. Street-level harm-reduction strategies have definitely succeeded in reducing HIV transmission in injecting drug users and sex-workers.
Harm Reduction for the
Prevention of Youth Gambling Problems
Laurie M. Dickson, Jeffrey L. Derevensky, Rina Gupta, McGill University.
Harm reduction approach in the field of adolescent
alcohol and substance abuse is popular in many countries. A harm reduction approach to prevention and treatment of
youth problem gambling remains largely unexplored. This article poses the question of
whether the harm reduction paradigm is a promising approach to the prevention of
adolescent problem gambling and other risky behavior.
The
authors present current
prevention initiatives that have emerged from the harm reduction health
paradigm for
adolescent substance and alcohol abuse. The risk-protective factor model is used as a
conceptual basis for designing youth problem gambling harm reduction prevention programs.
This framework illustrates the developmental appropriateness of the harm reduction
approach for youth. Implications drawn from this conceptual examination of harm reduction
as a prevention approach to adolescent problem gambling provide valuable information.
Substance abuse and developments in harm reduction - Yuet W. Cheung, Dr. Cheung is Professor, Dept. of Sociology, Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong. - A drug is a substance that produces a psychoactive, chemical or medicinal effect on the user. The psychoactive effect of mood-altering drugs is modulated by the user's perception of the risks of drug use, his or her ability to control drug use and the demographic, socioeconomic and cultural context. The harm reduction approach, which is based on public health principles, avoids the extremes of value-loaded judgements on drug use and focuses on the reduction of drug-related harm through pragmatic and low-threshold programs.
Harm reduction services for British Columbia's First Nation population: a
qualitative inquiry into opportunities and barriers for injection drug users -
Dennis Wardman and Darryl Quantz
Abstract: Background: Aboriginal injection drug users are the fastest growing group of new
Human Immunodeficiency Virus cases in Canada. However, there remains a lack of
comprehensive harm reduction services available to First Nation persons, particularly for
First Nation people dwelling in rural and reserve communities. This paper reports findings
from an exploratory study of current harm reduction practices in First Nation communities.
The purpose of this study was to provide an overview of the availability and content of
current harm reduction practices.
Conclusion: It was recommended that community education efforts be directed broadly within
the community before establishing harm reduction services and that the readiness of
communities be assessed.
Community tobacco control leaders’ perceptions of harm reduction
A M Joseph, D Hennrikus,, M J Thoele, R Krueger and D Hatsukami
Objective: To investigate community tobacco control leaders’ attitudes toward harm
reduction approaches to tobacco use, in order to assess benefits and risks associated with
these strategies. Participants discussed definitions of harm reduction; benefits and risks
of harm reduction methods; and how funds for tobacco control research and programmes
should be allocated. Results indicated inconsistency about the definition of harm reduction. Many participants stated that
harm reduction might be beneficial, particularly for smokers who could not or
would not quit. Results indicate that even among tobacco control leaders there is a need for
common terminology to describe harm reduction approaches and that public policy approaches
to harm reduction are considered more dependable than strategies that involve
pharmaceutical treatment or rely on the tobacco industry, such as product modification.
How Effective are Harm Reduction Programmes for Drug Users? Some Insights from an
Evaluation of the Programme at Sharan in Delhi. Kumar Ravi Priya, Kumar Ravi Priya and Suneet Varma are at the Department of Psychology,
University of Delhi. Siddharth Singh, Siddharth Singh is at the Asian Harm
Reduction Network, Chiang Mai University. Jimmy Dorabjee, Jimmy Dorabjee is at
the Centre for Harm Reduction, Burnet Institute.
Importantly, apart from needle/syringe exchange, oral substitution of drugs, medical care
and education to prevent HIV/AIDS, a harm reduction programme provides a psychological
space to drug users that not only acts an emotional support but also enables them to
reflect upon their life and risk behaviour. Apart from indicating the need of harm
reduction programmes, this article also evaluates the effectiveness of such a programme
run by Sharan, an NGO in Delhi, during 1999–2002.
“Harm Reduction: The Coming of Age” – the session will
provide a review of the last 18 years in the field of harm reduction and attempt to look
into the future of the field and into how it might develop, including such factors as the
institutionalization of HR and its positive and negative elements.
“Prisons and Harm Reduction” – the session will concentrate on the problems and opportunities concerned with the implementation of harm reduction programs in penitentiary settings.