Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jun 2012
Source: Coast Reporter (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Coast Reporter
Contact:  http://www.coastreporter.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/580
Author: Cathie Roy
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)

CHAMPIONING HARM REDUCTION

VCH Forum

If Mark Haden set policy in our country, harm reduction would be 
expanded and the war on drugs declared a failure. The present system 
is not working, he said.

Haden is clinical supervisor for Vancouver Coast Health (VCH) at the 
Pacific Spirit Community Health Centre, Addiction Services in 
Vancouver. He was at the Sechelt Indian Band Hall on June 6 at a Harm 
Reduction Forum hosted by VCH. Not one to back down from controversy, 
Haden challenged some of the common beliefs about harm reduction.

It isn't, he said, about enabling addicts, but about using health 
solutions to help addicts live more productive and longer, more 
meaningful lives.

Eleonora Molnar, community developer for VCH, invited Haden to the 
Coast. The intention was to create a local shared mental health model 
about harm reduction.

Presently the Coast has a needle exchange program, which has been 
running successfully for eight years, and a weekly youth clinic, 
which provides contraception and advice for young people, Molnar 
said. Also on the Coast, methadone is used to combat addiction to 
some opiate drugs. This is administered by doctors through the 
auspices of mental health.

Haden, who has a master's degree in social work, spoke often during 
the three and half hours about what he sees as the waste of resources 
aimed at policing the current Canadian drug laws.

"It would be more useful to have drugs regulated rather than 
outlawed," he said.

Haden also spoke about the messages being sent to our youth. He said 
that branding all drugs as harmful, regardless of the way in which 
they are being used, encourages young people to not believe any 
messages on drugs. He also questioned the effectiveness of programs 
such as DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), a program the RCMP 
has used in local elementary schools.

Haden quoted a World Health Organization 2009 observation stating 
that, despite overwhelming public health evidence demonstrating the 
effectiveness of harm reduction interventions, many decision makers 
remain reluctant to implement or scale up the interventions.

Canada would appear to be a jurisdiction where harm reduction rates 
low on the priority list in anti-drug funding.

Haden showed a graph depicting where money is spent in our country. 
Enforcement leads the group by a substantial amount - 70 per cent of 
the amount spent on drug policies. Treatment realizes 17 per cent of 
the total spent. Co-ordination and research compose seven per cent of 
the budget, prevention is four per cent, and harm reduction brings up 
the rear with two per cent allotted.

Cpl. Don Newman of the Sunshine Coast RCMP attended the seminar. In a 
later interview, he said the enforcement part of the equation is misleading.

"We're the catch all when there's nowhere else to go. It's a social 
issue. We get [the addicts causing trouble] because there's no 
alternative," Newman said.

For his part he would like to see prevention get a bigger share of the pie.

Another attendee at the seminar, local doctor Ron Mundy, shared his 
reflections in a subsequent interview as well.

For Mundy, the ultimate in harm reduction is detox and abstinence. 
The challenge is keeping the addict alive long enough to get them to 
that point.

In some ways, the doctor said, harm reduction is palliative care.

"We're keeping people comfortable with the disorder they have, " he said.

Some of the concerns he sees in adopting a harm reduction model 
include deciding who would have jurisdiction. Mundy said there is a 
large group of people who would see their clients affected. There 
needs to be a cohesive plan and he sees better education of young 
people as one of the keys of that approach.

He agreed with Haden that drug education needs to be revamped. Mundy 
said, for many kids, having an adult speaking about the dangers of 
addiction just doesn't work.

He said what often works with youth is the "my friend John 
technique." He explained that someone who is abusing drugs including 
alcohol might not recognize themselves as having a problem, but they 
might identify their friend as having one. Concern for friends can 
help behaviours to change.

Locally Mundy said alcohol appears to be the drug of choice. He said 
averaged over a year one person dies every month from the direct 
results of alcohol abuse, not including car crashes where the driver 
has been drinking. Mundy contends that every person on the Coast has 
felt the effects of alcoholism in one way or another, either directly 
or through a family member or friend.

"For harm reduction to be successful, it has to reduce harm to the 
community as well as the individual. There can't be a trade off," he declared.

Alcohol harm reduction programs include wet houses where one drink 
per hour is dispensed to the user, free on site. Damp houses are 
where there is no drinking on site, but the person who is drinking or 
drunk is allowed on the premises, and dry houses are where abstinence 
is required.

According to Haden this range of services can engage the most 
marginalized of individuals.

Ultimately we need to remember, Haden said, the language we use is 
important. It's not us versus them.

"There is no them. There's just us."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom