Harm reduction for problematic substance use

ABSTRACT

A harm reduction approach, as the name implies, seeks to minimize the adverse consequences of behaviors without necessarily reducing or eliminating the behavior. Harm reduction policies have been initiated for a wide range of public health challenges throughout the world, including carbon exchange programs to combat air pollution, food labels to encourage healthier eating habits, access to condoms to reduce sexually transmitted infections, and directives to minimize large social gatherings to avoid contagion during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current opioid epidemic, which in the United States claimed more than 46,000 lives in 2018 alone 2020, brought about a renewed urgency to make medication available for treating opioid use disorder. The use of agonist medications for the treatment of problematic substance use is a narrowly targeted harm reduction approach generally reserved for people with substantial opioid addiction. Social workers are employed in a vast array of settings conducive to a harm reduction approach, including schools, colleges, hospitals, child welfare services, mental health clinics, housing, and private practice. In the end, the harm reduction model neither condemns nor condones drug use, and instead concerns itself with the quality of life for individuals, community, and society. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)