Interestingly, not all of the work in dependency treatment focuses on helping individuals get off and remain off drugs. There is substantial effort to target health as a whole. It does involve interventions to help those struggling with addiction who are ambivalent or perhaps opposed to stopping. This brings us to the topic of harm reduction.
If drug usage continues, harm reduction includes using techniques or programs to help decrease the health consequences of drug usage. Some of this involves efforts to help protect as much general health as possible with the presumption that the individual will at some point reach a phase of modification to give up drugs. It is in the individual’s (and the general public’s) benefit to decrease death from drugs, decline rates of extreme infections such as Hepatitis C or HIV, and reduce legal harm connected to the drug trade.
Some of the core examples of harm reduction practices include the following. If you are struggling with addiction, contact our opioid rehab center today.
Needle Exchanges
A needle exchange involves a safe zone, usually in bigger metropolitan centers, where intravenous drug users get rid of used drug needles. They then receive bundles of sanitized ones. These programs frequently have agreements with the local police department to minimize police traffic around the center. This is to promote the health benefits of clean needle usage without threatening addicted individuals for potential drug possession charges. Most needle exchanges provide assistance to help bridge people into treatment when they are ready.
A core philosophy of needle exchanges is that the IV user will eventually reach inspiration to change. We need to keep a close discussion with that individual to “strike while the iron is hot.” This is rather than pester the individual about their requirement to stop using heroin. If desired, these centers are often well-connected and have numerous referral channels to bridge a customer into treatment.
What are a few of the information points connected to needle exchanges and public health impact? A detailed review by the World Health Organization in 2004 evaluated multiple domains linked to needle exchanges. Findings showed that helping addicted people have access to clean needles significantly reduced cases of HIV infection. They are cost-effective for neighborhoods and brought no significant unexpected effects. [1] More recent cost analysis as explained by the Harm Reduction Action Center (HRAC) in Colorado reports that the cost of offering HIV care today is around $400,000 per case. That amount invested in needle exchanges would prevent an estimated 30 brand-new HIV cases from ever contracting. [2]
Methadone
The methadone opioid replacement therapy method is the origin of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid addiction. Cclinicians Isbell and Vogel established this plan in New York City in 1964. It was implemented to fight the heroin crisis from post-World War II Veterans. At that time, heroin overdose was the leading cause of death for young people in NYC. Maintenance on methadone was found to be considerably helpful in preventing opioid deaths and relapse rates. The very first clinics of this sort were actively supported by the US Department of Health and the Kennedy Administration in 1963. [3]
Comprehending methadone programs as harm reduction efforts can be also subject and confusing to dispute. Many clinicians in dedicated methadone programs will describe people as actively in recovery. Their primary drug of choice gotten rid of from the formula, life operating and stability have noticeably improved. The nature of methadone as a full opioid raises some controversy with particular clinicians. It suggests that the brain is still getting a close variation of its drug of choice, albeit in a less unstable method.
Methadone also carries some stigma in the dedicated 12-step recovery community. There are multiple Narcotics Anonymous meetings worldwide in which an individual on methadone upkeep is not openly accepted. These practices seem to be altering total. This is largely as a result of the positive benefits of Buprenorphine treatment, a similar MAT technique.
In general, methadone maintenance is associated with a statistically substantial reduction in overdose deaths. It’s also credited with decreasing contraction of HIV, contraction of Hepatitis C, and IV substance abuse as a whole.
Primary Care Harm Reduction – Condom Dispersal
Another example of harm reduction, not primarily linked to addiction, is condom distribution in schools. Through efforts originating in the 1990s, increased access and education for teenagers to comprehend birth control and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention worked at reducing teen pregnancy and STD infections. Prior to these academic and dispersal programs, abstinence-only methods were not discovered to be reliable in suppressing these health issues. Of note, some of the newer data on this topic is questionable, as explained in a 2016 short article in The Atlantic. Data from that evaluation showed marked shifts in teenage contraception options with a higher emphasis on oral contraceptive approaches and varying outcomes for teens who received condoms with or without instructional efforts.
Naloxone Training and Dispersal
The most recent advancement in harm reduction practices has been the civilian dispersal of naloxone medication, the overdose remedy with brand name Narcan. In the last 5 years, more states have passed laws allowing ‘civilians’ to get prescriptions from physicians for naloxone without the bona fide doctor-patient relationship. These laws allowed a medical professional who was dealing with an individual with a heroin complication to write a supplemental prescription to the person’s family member. The hope in this action was that if the addicted individual were discovered down from a heroin overdose, that family member could administer the life-saving measure that was formerly only in the hands of EMTs or ER personnel.
Naloxone programs are now nation-wide and represent a public health technique to deal with the most tragic result of the opioid epidemic– overdose deaths. Various media posts evaluating naloxone programs and harm reduction centers appear to be promoting these on a scale in parallel to needle exchange efforts. By helping to stifle the most hazardous of results from opioid usage, the user has the ability to have as much preserved time as possible to choose change and quitting opioids.
How this Applies to You
These options for harm reduction are readily available to you and likely in your best interest if you are struggling with opioid dependency. It is very crucial to keep in mind that healing efforts are possible in the middle of harm reduction. Don’t think about healing efforts and harm reduction efforts as mutually unique, particularly towards the start of your recovery process.
During the beginning of recovery, the mind and body are disrupted. Even though you are working to recover yourself and your dependency, there is a horrible irony that you’re overdose and mortality rate is actually heightened at this time. Opioid tolerance is reduced and the brain will react more intensely to opioid usage. This can lead to an opioid overdose as someone might resume use just like at the height of the dependency.
Residential treatment centers around the country are more assertively accepting harm reduction practices. If somebody in active treatment is able to efficiently detox off opioids and has reached the 30-day recovery turning point, that person is still at 3-4 times increased the chance of death the weeks following discharge from treatment. It is for this reason that opioid-dependent individuals, specifically IV heroin users and young adults, require structured treatment for durations longer than 30 days. A strong treatment program will appreciate the opioid overdose risk and match treatment properly.
