The Harm Reduction Gap

The Harm Reduction Gap PDF Author: Sheila P. Vakharia
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003837026
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
This long-awaited book teaches how harm reduction can be a safety net for people with substance use disorders that our current addiction treatment rejects, abandons, and leaves behind. Harm reduction is an approach to helping people who engage in high-risk activities to develop the skills and strategies to keep them and their communities safe. This can include the provision of sterile equipment, low-threshold and low-barrier care, and the acceptance of non-abstinence goals in treatment. In this novel guide, Dr. Vakharia discusses the shortcomings of the dominant “Just Say No” drug prevention messages and abstinence-only treatment approaches, introduces harm reduction strategies and technologies borne from people who use drugs themselves, and suggests various policy options available as alternatives to the current policies that criminalize drugs, drug-using equipment, and the settings in which people use drugs. The final chapter calls on the reader to destigmatize drug use and support efforts to reform our drug policies. By highlighting the large gap in our current approach to substance use – the harm reduction gap – this book is the first step for those interested in learning more about the limitations of our current approach to drug use and how to support local efforts to ensure people who use drugs and their communities can stay safe.

The Harm Reduction Gap

The Harm Reduction Gap PDF Author: Sheila P. Vakharia
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003837026
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Get Book Here

Book Description
This long-awaited book teaches how harm reduction can be a safety net for people with substance use disorders that our current addiction treatment rejects, abandons, and leaves behind. Harm reduction is an approach to helping people who engage in high-risk activities to develop the skills and strategies to keep them and their communities safe. This can include the provision of sterile equipment, low-threshold and low-barrier care, and the acceptance of non-abstinence goals in treatment. In this novel guide, Dr. Vakharia discusses the shortcomings of the dominant “Just Say No” drug prevention messages and abstinence-only treatment approaches, introduces harm reduction strategies and technologies borne from people who use drugs themselves, and suggests various policy options available as alternatives to the current policies that criminalize drugs, drug-using equipment, and the settings in which people use drugs. The final chapter calls on the reader to destigmatize drug use and support efforts to reform our drug policies. By highlighting the large gap in our current approach to substance use – the harm reduction gap – this book is the first step for those interested in learning more about the limitations of our current approach to drug use and how to support local efforts to ensure people who use drugs and their communities can stay safe.

Undoing Drugs

Undoing Drugs PDF Author: Maia Szalavitz
Publisher: Hachette Go
ISBN: 0738285757
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
From “one of the bravest, smartest writers about addiction anywhere” (Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author)—the untold story of harm reduction, a surprisingly simple idea with enormous power Drug overdoses now kill more Americans annually than guns, cars or breast cancer. But we have tried to solve this national crisis with policies that only made matters worse. In the name of “sending the right message,” we have maximized the spread of infectious disease, torn families apart, incarcerated millions of mostly Black and Brown people—and utterly failed to either prevent addiction or make effective treatment for it widely available. There is another way, one that is proven to work. However, it runs counter to much of the received wisdom of our criminal and medical industrial complexes. It is called harm reduction. Developed and championed by an outcast group of people who use drugs and by former users and public health geeks, harm reduction offers guidance on how to save lives and improve health. And it provides a way of understanding behavior and culture that has relevance far beyond drugs. In a spellbinding narrative rooted in an urgent call to action, Undoing Drugs tells the story of how a small group of committed people changed the world, illuminating the power of a great idea. It illustrates how hard it can be to take on widely accepted conventional wisdom—and what is necessary to overcome this resistance. It is also about how personal, direct human connection and kindness can inspire profound transformation. Ultimately, Undoing Drugs offers a path forward—revolutionizing not only the treatment of addiction, but also our treatment of behavioral and societal issues.

Harm Reduction Psychotherapy

Harm Reduction Psychotherapy PDF Author: Andrew Tatarsky
Publisher: Jason Aronson
ISBN: 1461628709
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
This ground-breaking volume provides readers with both an overview of harm reduction therapy and a series of ten case studies, treated by different therapists, that vividly illustrate this treatment approach with a wide variety of clients. Harm reduction is a framework for helping drug and alcohol users who cannot or will not stop completely—the majority of users—reduce the harmful consequences of use. Harm reduction accepts that abstinence may be the best outcome for many but relaxes the emphasis on abstinence as the only acceptable goal and criterion of success. Instead, smaller incremental changes in the direction of reduced harmfulness of drug use are accepted. This book will show how these simple changes in emphasis and expectation have dramatic implications for improving the effectiveness of psychotherapy in many ways. From the Foreword by Alan Marlatt, Ph.D.: “This ground-breaking volume provides readers with both an overview of harm reduction therapy and a series of ten case studies, treated by different therapists, that vividly illustrate this treatment approach with a wide variety of clients. In his introduction, Andrew Tatarsky describes harm reduction as a new paradigm for treating drug and alcohol problems. Some would say that harm reduction embraces a paradigm shift in addiction treatment, as it has moved the field beyond the traditional abstinence-only focus typically associated with the disease model and the ideology of the twelve-step approach. Others may conclude that the move toward harm reduction represents an integration of what Dr. Tatarsky describes as the “basic principles of good clinical practice” into the treatment of addictive behaviors. “Changing addiction behavior is often a complex and complicated process for both client and therapist. What seems to work best is the development of a strong therapeutic alliance, the right fit between the client and treatment provider. The role of the harm reduction therapist is closer to that of a guide, someone who can provide support an

Coming to Harm Reduction Kicking & Screaming

Coming to Harm Reduction Kicking & Screaming PDF Author: Dee-Dee Stout
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781438995472
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
The first chapters of this handbook deal with the basic reasons why many children raised in church today do not live a Christian life when they become adults, and what can be done about it. This book also covers the effects of our culture on our kids, and what we can do about that. Thirdly, this book contains a lot of practical information concerning communication with kids (including communication with teenagers), discipline of kids, and classroom management. Fundamental differences between effectively working with pre-adolescent children versus effectively working with teenagers are described in detail. Information is provided to help the parent or church worker teach and train kids about a wide range of vital topics, including sex, peer pressure, wisdom, schoolwork, finding a spouse, finances, finding a purpose in life, dealing with anger, and dealing with a culture that does not honor God. Foremost and most importantly, this book is all about helping your kids establish a strong, solid, unshakable relationship with the Living God. This handbook is for anybody who works with boys or girls. It is also for anybody working with teenagers, also known as adolescents or "youth". It is for parents and for those who work with kids but are not parents. This book is for folks with kids born yesterday, for people with kids born 20 years ago, or for anybody who thinks they might be responsible for a kid of some age at sometime in their life. This means that teenagers will benefit from this book! These young people need to see the big picture regarding how adults should relate to children and teenagers. They need to see it now, before they have children of their own. Sales of this book support the ministry of True Life Church, located in Brier Creek, North Carolina. (www.mytruelife.org)

Animals, Health, and Society

Animals, Health, and Society PDF Author: Craig Stephen
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000285464
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
CHOICE Recommended title 2022 This timely book reframes the historic narrative of people, animals, and nature as risks to each other, to one where we think about health as a shared capacity. This new narrative promotes the positive contributions made to health across species and generations and addresses growing calls to shift from a reactive to proactive approach in One Health. Editor Craig Stephen takes the reader on a tour of the situations wherein we can all, regardless of our job description, work across species, sectors, and generations to motivate action. Perspectives and methods from a variety of fields and experts are shared and adapted to promote collaborative understanding of and action on determinants of health at the animal-society interface. Case studies demonstrate that the principles and practices presented are feasible, empowering people to make choices that concurrently benefit the health of animals, societies, and ecosystems. The first book to adapt and explain health promotion, harm reduction, and health equity issues in a One Health context, and in terms of animal health, this is necessary reading for students of and practitioners working in planetary health, conservation, ecohealth, public health, health promotion, veterinary medicine, and animal welfare.

OD

OD PDF Author: Nancy D. Campbell
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262357488
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
The history of an unnatural disaster—drug overdose—and the emergence of naloxone as a social and technological solution. For years, drug overdose was unmentionable in polite society. OD was understood to be something that took place in dark alleys—an ugly death awaiting social deviants—neither scientifically nor clinically interesting. But over the last several years, overdose prevention has become the unlikely object of a social movement, powered by the miracle drug naloxone. In OD, Nancy Campbell charts the emergence of naloxone as a technological fix for overdose and describes the remaking of overdose into an experience recognized as common, predictable, patterned—and, above all, preventable. Naloxone, which made resuscitation, rescue, and “reversal” after an overdose possible, became a tool for shifting law, policy, clinical medicine, and science toward harm reduction. Liberated from emergency room protocols and distributed in take-home kits to non-medical professionals, it also became a tool of empowerment. After recounting the prehistory of naloxone—the early treatment of OD as a problem of poisoning, the development of nalorphine (naloxone's predecessor), the idea of “reanimatology”—Campbell describes how naloxone emerged as a tool of harm reduction. She reports on naloxone use in far-flung locations that include post-Thatcherite Britain, rural New Mexico, and cities and towns in Massachusetts. Drawing on interviews with approximately sixty advocates, drug users, former users, friends, families, witnesses, clinicians, and scientists—whom she calls the “protagonists” of her story—Campbell tells a story of saving lives amid the complex, difficult conditions of an unfolding unnatural disaster.

Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders

Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309439124
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic

Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309459575
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 483

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Book Description
Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.

Fighting for Space

Fighting for Space PDF Author: Travis Lupick
Publisher: arsenal pulp press
ISBN: 1551527138
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
North America is in the grips of a drug epidemic; with the introduction of fentanyl, the chances of a fatal overdose are greater than ever, prompting many to rethink the war on drugs. Public opinion has slowly begun to turn against prohibition, and policy-makers are finally beginning to look at addiction as a health issue as opposed to one for the criminal justice system. While deaths across the continent continue to climb, Fighting for Space explains the concept of harm reduction as a crucial component of a city’s response to the drug crisis. It tells the story of a grassroots group of addicts in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside who waged a political street fight for two decades to transform how the city treats its most marginalized citizens. Over the past twenty-five years, this group of residents from Canada's poorest neighborhood organized themselves in response to the growing number of overdose deaths and demanded that addicts be given the same rights as any other citizen; against all odds, they eventually won. But just as their battle came to an end, fentanyl arrived and opioid deaths across North America reached an all-time high. The "genocide" in Vancouver finally sparked government action. Twenty years later, as the same pattern plays out in other cities, there is much that advocates for reform can learn from Vancouver's experience. Fighting for Space tells that story—including case studies in Ohio, Florida, New York, California, Massachusetts, and Washington state—with the same passionate fervor as the activists whose tireless work gave dignity to addicts and saved countless lives. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.

Handbook of Drug Abuse Prevention

Handbook of Drug Abuse Prevention PDF Author: Zili Sloboda
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0387354085
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 698

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Book Description
This wide-ranging handbook brings together experts in the sociology of drug abuse prevention. Providing a comprehensive overview of the accumulated knowledge on prevention theory, intervention design, and development and prevention research methodology, this work also promotes prevention science as an evolving field in the practice and policy of drug abuse prevention.