With a public health crisis regarding overdoses happening now across BC it’s increasingly important to understand and practice harm reduction principles in our practice.

VCH has implemented a Harm Reduction Practice policy that all staff are expected to follow, if they don’t already, which will help everyone understand what harm reduction is and why it’s so critical in your practice.

Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Patricia Daly says, “We want to see consistency across programs and create greater clarity for staff about what harm reduction is and why it works. This new course and policy provides concrete guidance that is hopefully helpful for staff, and will benefit patients and clients. It comes at an important time in the midst of dealing with the alarming overdose rates.”

Harm Reduction Coordinator Sara Young, who helped create the new policy, says, “Harm reduction services are critical to the health and well-being of our patients and clients. They’re a proven health intervention. Simply put, they save lives.”

Take a short online course

VCH has created an in-depth online module for you to learn about harm reduction, from everything from teaching people how to use naloxone to providing clean needles. The full course can be completed in three hours (in 30 minute segments), and for a quick introduction to harm reduction, you can take 30 minutes complete the ‘Course Introduction’ and ‘Harm Reduction’ modules of the course on CCRS.

What is harm reduction?

The goal of harm reduction programs is to keep individuals and communities safe and healthy by preventing infections, illness and injury related to drug use and sexual practices.

Harm Reduction is both a set of service delivery practices, and a fundamental philosophical approach to providing equitable health promotion, illness and injury prevention, treatment and care across all areas of health care.

Goals of the new policy

The purpose of this new policy is to:

• Promote an understanding of the overarching principles of harm reduction in service provision;
• Support the integration of harm reduction principles and practices in all clinical policies, procedures, guidelines and hiring processes;
• Achieve better outcomes for clients through provision of harm reduction services;
• Guide care providers to support, educate and provide services to clients and family members; and
• Guide the development of organizational policies and practices that address individual, interpersonal, systemic and institutionalized health inequities.

Details are coming soon for managers and directors.