Video 3: Harm reduction: concept and tools

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From the course by University of Geneva

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health

1 rating

University of Geneva

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health

1 rating

This MOOC is the first of its kind, since it addresses critical issues related to drugs from a multidisciplinary, health and human rights-based approach. Throughout the course you will cover a range of questions including what are drugs and why they controlled? What are the benefits and harms of taking drugs? How public health policies can address drug use? You will also learn about the intricacies of the international drug control framework and the negative consequences of widespread prohibitionist drug policies around the world. Finally, you will examine ways of furthering drug policy reform. The topics will be presented by over 40 speakers from scientific, academic and institutional backgrounds, spokespersons of civil society as well as people who use drugs presenting their views. By the end of the course you will have: - a strong understanding of the major health issues related to drug use and drug policy; - a clear vision of why drug policy is debated today; - and, if you so wish, you will be equipped to engage in the drug policy reform movement at your local or regional level.

From the lesson

Module 3: Addressing drug use and health: prevention, harm reduction and treatment

Welcome to Module 3 which focuses on public health, harm reduction and treatment. In this Module you will see how public health policies address drug use ; become familiar with various harm reduction concepts and tools and learn a bit about the history as well. You will learn a lot about harm reduction itself, seeing how it can fit into existing health policies and look at how policies can include prevention, harm reduction and treatment in a complementary fashion. By the end of the Module you will be able to : • Recall the concepts and list the tools of harm reduction.• Assess treatment options for dependence• and Explain how prevention, harm reduction and treatment complement each other.We hope this week will provide you with a good sense of what harm reduction is and how it fits within wider public health–oriented policies. This week also builds on what you have learnt in Module 2, with regard to certain health issues and looking at when treatment for dependence may be necessary. Don’t forget to go through the essential reading list and look at the optional additional resources. Best wishes,The Drugs, Drug Use, Drug Policy and Health team

Introduction to Module 32:41

Video 2: How public health policies address drug use8:16

Video 3: Harm reduction: concept and tools5:28

Video 4: What is the history of harm reduction?4:53

Meet the Instructors

Michel Kazatchkine
Senior Fellow
Global Health Center, Graduate Institute for International Affairs and Development, Geneva
Barbara Broers
Professor (in Addiction Medicine)
Community Health Departement, Geneva University Hospitals
Aymeric Reyre
Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Medicine, Paris 13 University
Jennifer Hasselgard-Rowe
Researcher and Lecturer
Institute of Global Health, University of Geneva

So I want to tell you a story.

Which is a true story.

A long time ago when my two daughters were probably 10 years old and eight years old,

they were playing in the garden on a swing.

But they weren't sitting on the swing and swinging backwards and forwards.

They were leaning over the seats of the swing and they were going around

on the floor like the untwisting the chains of the swing.

Then they'd let their feet off the floor and they'd spin round like that,

and they get off and they were dizzy.

They would say "Oh Dad I'm dizzy looking at this" and they really like this.

I thought as I watch them do it spinning round I notice that Madeleine,

which was her name the daughter that was on the swing,

her head was almost touching these legs of the swing.

But there's oh look at that.

I have to tell them to stop doing that.

But then I thought no, if I tell them to stop

doing it is the minute I go in they're going to do it anyway.

So I thought I know what I'll do.

So I said look Madd,

when you let go and you lift your legs up,

tuck your head because I think you're going to hit the stanchions.

So she did it and they played and I went

in and they probably played and they probably did

it some more then they stopped doing it.

So, what's this got to do with harm reduction?

Basically, it kind of encapsulates the whole thing.

That someone's doing an activity that is pleasurable.

They like it.

It can be dangerous,

but there's also ways of doing it to limit the danger.

That's what harm reduction is.

They like being dizzy and I wanted them to like it but not to harm themselves.

Harm reduction is basically about justice.

Human rights.

That's what it's about and it's about allowing people have made

a choice to do what they do as safe as they can.

So harm reduction is about doing what we know works.

We know we can stop people.

For example, contracting HIV through infected needles, we know that.

We know that we can tell people safer ways of using all drugs.

It's about not doing what we know doesn't work and what we know doesn't work is,

we don't know how to stop people using drugs.

We just don't know.

We don't know how to stop people starting to use drugs.

It's about eliminating stigma from people's lives.

It's about helping people to become part of

the society instead of being marginalized from

societies because this is what happens to drug users.

People who use drugs are stigmatized or

marginalized because they don't use the drugs we want them to use.

Prohibition. People who support prohibition think that they have control.

When in reality we have no control at all,

because we can't control the price of the drugs,

we can't control the quality of the drugs,

we can't control where they're sold,

we can't control anything about it at all.

It just brings people into criminal networks and

causes them to commit crimes just to buy their drugs.

So what harm reduction from a practical point of view is about giving

people the tools to keep themselves safe.

The classic example is the HIV prevention approach with people who inject drugs.

So, you give them needles that are clean.

That have never been used before.

You teach them only to use that needle themselves and then get rid of it.

You teach them not to share.

You supply them with pharmaceutically pure drugs.

Methadone is the most common but increasingly heroine has been prescribed.

So that they don't have to go and buy drugs on the street.

They don't have to get into

criminal activity and they know that the drugs are clean and pure.

The heroin actually, pharmaceutically pure heroin is fairly benign on your body.

Another tool is to go and meet people where they are.

So outreach where you go out.

Don't sit in your office and wait for people to come to you.

Get out and meet them where they are.

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