Harm reduction
Minimizing Negative Impact: Harm Reduction Best Practices
The Greater American Leadership Harm Reduction is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug miss-use. Harm Reduction is also a movement for social justice built on a belief in, that clearly respects, the rights of individuals who use drugs. Harm reduction best practices are proponents of the humanization of the healing process by addressing psycho-educational, cultural, socioeconomic and generational gaps within the most vulnerable community.
The Greater American Leadership harm reduction best practices, incorporates a wide spectrum of strategies that includes safer use, managed use, abstinence, meeting individuals who miss-use drugs “where they are at,” and addressing conditions of use along with the use itself. However, The Greater American Leadership, has joined and contribute to develop a coalition of resources to the vulnerable population and equipping the community with greater skillset to identify, prevent and minimize the use and misuse of drugs. Furthermore implementing psycho-educational opportunities and with access to all, increasing general population knowledge and promoting compassionate understanding of the disorder.
Our process
The Greater American Leadership subscribe to basic humanistic principles of harm reduction:
1- Humanization: Provides a safeguard and acceptances, that licit and illicit drug use is part of our world and we choose to work to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignore or condemn individuals with emotional disorders and unhealed trauma.
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2-Understanding: Understands drug use as a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon that encompasses a continuum of behaviors from severe use to total abstinence, and acknowledges that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others.bDecreasing harm, maximizing human potential.
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3- Roadmap: Establishes quality of individual and community life and well-being — decreasing all drug use — as the criteria for successful interventions and policies. Providing avenues for a continuum of care. We have partner with organizations that provide direct and indirect services.
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4- Openness: Calls for the non-judgmental, non-coercive provision of services and resources to people who use and miss-use drugs and the communities in which they live in order to assist them in minimizing attendant harm. We hear you, see you and meet you where you are. We have phone intake that allows you to express freeying your feelings, sensations and emotions.
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5- Compassion: Ensures that people who use and miss-use drugs and those with a history of drug use routinely have a real voice in the creation of programs and policies designed to serve them. We welcome opinions from lived experiences and have active advocates that promote more efficient and fair second chances with those struggling as a consequence of drug use or miss-use.
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6- Empowering: Affirms people who use drugs themselves as the primary agents of reducing the harms of their drug use and seeks to empower people who use/ miss-use drugs to share information and support each other in strategies which meet their actual conditions of use. We foster a group of peer support specialist and provide emotional resiliency training in addition to mental health first aid and other trainings.
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7- Equity: Identify bio-psychosocial factors that exacerbate and or increases the likelihood of use. Furthermore, the realities of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, past trauma, sex-based discrimination, and other social inequalities affect both people’s vulnerability to and capacity for effectively coping with drug-related harm. Furthermore we provide advocacy partnerships to ensure action steps are taken to decrease the gaps and fight for social justice!
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8- Understanding: Does not attempt to minimize or ignore the real and tragic harm and danger that can be associated with illicit drug use. We strive to increase supportive network.
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9- Supportive Practices: provide every available resource that promotes positive coping skills, minimization of harm. Bio-Psycho-education, seminars, disposable supplies and resource guide.
The Greater American Leadership strives to provide psycho-educational seminars and workshops that involve a multidisciplinary panel of collaborative agents. We are determined to utilize technological advances, cultural competencies best practices, historical sensitivity understanding, and current scientific research to develop a well rounded seminar and workshops that provides individuals with a plethora of community resources and engagement opportunities to deliver harm reduction strategies with socially applicable best practices.
Outreach opportunities, resource fairs, panel discussions, workshops and mobile clinics in partnership with community providers.
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Our ​method
Get to Know Our Work
Harm reduction best practices involve a range of strategies and interventions to reduce the negative consequences of drug use, including overdose, HIV and Hepatitis C transmission, and other harms.
Some key harm reduction strategies include providing access to clean needles and syringes, offering naloxone training and distribution to reverse opioid overdoses, testing for infectious diseases, promoting safe injection practices, and offering counseling and support services to those struggling with substance use.
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It is important to note that harm reduction approaches prioritize safety and harm reduction over moral judgment or punishment, and seek to provide compassionate and effective support to individuals and communities impacted by drug use.