HLTH 90B

Harm Reduction & Health

Hi! Welcome to the Harm Reduction course at City College.

This is a .5 unit course, and we usually meet in two sessions, on consecutive Saturdays, mid-morning to early afternoon. It's oriented to people who work in drug treatment, community health and mental health, and anyone else interested in how "increasing benefit and reducing harm" can work for them and the people they serve.

The Details

The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of the basic principles and practice of harm reduction, tailored toward working with people in client-centered, trauma informed care.

The goal is to explore and better understand the relationships between humans and substances, using models that address the complexity of human behavior and offer more compassionate, pragmatic approaches to reducing harm.

How will we get there?

  • Reviewing information about harm reduction in public health and drug treatment work in the US, its history around the world, and its relation to other treatment models.

  • Sharing work scenarios, personal experiences, media stories, and arts/music related to harm reduction.

  • Exploring the therapeutic, clinical, and practical considerations involved in utilizing harm reduction to enhance client-centered, trauma informed care.

What’s the framework?

  • Curiosity and critical scrutiny: Developing and integrating increasingly sophisticated ways of thinking about treating people with health challenges (like problems with drug use).

  • Emphasizing cultural humility and justice.

  • Ecology: Going beyond the individual person to the setting (family, community, society, and beyond), including larger systems of privilege and power, including socioeconomic class, race, gender, and sexual/affectional orientation. Examining the ecological effects of these on mental health and drug use.

The Official Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course a student will be able to:

  1. Evaluate key concepts and principle of harm reduction, with application to substance use disorders and public health policy.

  2. Analyze and apply harm reduction principles and strategies to overdose prevention and substance use disorder counseling with individuals.

Thank you for your interest and hope to see you in the course!

:)