Greetings from Baltimore Harm Reduction Conference
The 10th National Harm Reduction Conference was held October 23 to 26, and Community Access was actively involved.
It was glorious to spend several days surrounded by those who either embrace harm reduction methodologies —as Community Access does— or are yearning to learn more. For four days, harm reduction was all we could think about!
Six of us from CA (from left to right in photo: Robert Karmazyn, Andres Simpson, Rachel Easterly, Duysal Karakus, and me; plus David Williams, not pictured) split up among a wide array of workshops to try and gather as much information as we could.
Workshop listings were often as colorful as the attendees were, with edgy titles that represented this sometimes controversial approach, such as: “Trust Me, I’m Not a Doctor: A Holistic Approach to Vein Care and Safe Injection Counseling,” and “I Learned to Feel My Body—Alcohol Management Techniques Among Bar-going Gay and Bi Men.” Yep… harm reduction is not afraid to meet people where people are at! And that is just one reason why it saves lives.
We were also there to share some of what we know. We offered three presentations, all of which were very well attended:
- Staying Out of Harm’s Way: Negotiating Personal Challenges and Stressors While Working Within a Harm Reduction Model
- There is No ‘Us’ vs. ‘Them:’ Combating Organizational Worker Stigma
- Harm Reduction in a Supportive Housing Environment: Collaborative, Compassionate, and…Creative!
After hearing a lot of positive feedback about our work, answering numerous questions about our housing and harm reduction services, and replying to many follow-up emails from other providers, it became evident to us that Community Access stands out as a leader that values harm reduction from top to bottom.
The National Harm Reduction Conference has been a unique venue for those interested in understanding drug use, drug users and the philosophy and practice of harm reduction since 1996.
- Allan Clear, Executive Director of the Harm Reduction Coalition
Much of the conference focused on overdose prevention (harm reduction at its root, after all, is about preventing deaths), safer drug use, and harm reduction best practices. Only a few presentations discussed the intersection of housing and harm reduction, and even fewer combined harm reduction with housing and mental health.
As we reflect on our experience in Baltimore, we recognize that we have more to learn and improve upon in order to provide the best harm reduction-focused services we can to the people we serve, and we are currently mapping out strategies to do so. But we also learned that harm reduction services in supportive housing are in demand, and others want to hear more about how we do it. That makes for some very proud Community Access staff members!
