The Response Summer 2021 - 18

FEATURE
Harm Reduction:
Saving Lives During the Opioid Epidemic
H
arm reduction, simply put, is a range of public health
policies and programs designed to lessen the negative
social and/or physical consequences associated with
various risky human behaviors. The goal of harm reduction
is to move people to the place where they are most healthy
and safe. Certain harm reduction
strategies have become a familiar part
of our lives. For example, to protect
us from the life-threatening physical
injuries associated with automobile
crashes, the use of seat belts has
become a familiar and accepted harm
reduction strategy. Harm reduction
strategies, with respect to substance
use, are designed to reduce the health
consequences of the risky behaviors
associated with use.
use disorder treatment, this practice has become more widely
accepted. By 2014, syringe service programs were operating in
nearly 200 U.S. cities across the United States.1
While still not
" Harm Reduction
is About Hope
and Saving
People's Lives "
The AIDS crisis in the mid-1980s
marked the development of harm
reduction strategies in relationship to
substance use. With HIV infections
clearly linked to injection drug use,
needle exchange programs, now referred to as syringe services,
were established as a means of reducing the growing escalation
of HIV transmissions. These needle exchange sites, when first
opened, were considered a radical approach and not consistent
with the traditional pathways to recovery from substance use
disorders. The syringe service approach to harm reduction also
crossed the line of allowable federal and state health practices.
However, as evidence proved the effectiveness of syringe
services in saving lives and linking individuals to substance
18 THE RESPONSE // SUMMER 2021
~Vitka Eisen, MSW, Ed.D.
President and CEO
HealthRIGHT 360,
Board Member,
National Council
for Mental Wellbeing
legal statewide in Pennsylvania, syringe service programs, such
as Prevention Point in Philadelphia, have a strong presence in
the community and have successfully
linked individuals to vital substance
use disorder treatment services.
The opioid epidemic marks another
health crisis that has invigorated the
dialog regarding how a continuum of
harm reduction strategies can best be
applied to the reduction of opioidrelated
deaths. With drug overdose
death
rates
outpacing death rates
from car crashes, gun violence and
even the AIDS epidemic at its peak,
harm reduction organizations and
advocates are taking the lead to support
communities across the United States
in the integration of harm reduction
approaches to individuals engaged
in substance use. These efforts acknowledge that the harm
consequences of drug use are disproportionately impacting
those who are low-income and people of color. Therefore,
equity in the access of services must be a key component of
harm reduction.
The availability of naloxone (NARCAN®) and medicationassisted
treatment of opioid-use disorders are two harm
reduction strategies that have been found to be effective in the
The Response Summer 2021

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