Harm Reduction
Harm Reduction
How we are working to stop anyone dying from a preventable drug overdose, reduce wider harms and help keep people safer.
Saving Lives through Harm Reduction
For people who have experienced significant trauma, including the harms of experiencing homelessness, using drugs and alcohol can be a way of trying to cope with the mental, physical and social challenges they know.
Everyone we support deserves access to what they need, when they need it. Far too often the right solutions are difficult to find. In Scotland, far too many people continue to lose their lives to preventable overdose deaths. We are working to change this.
Our harm reduction and harm reducing practices recognise the human rights of people, are informed by evidence and designed to ensure people are safe when using substances. We call this our Safer Services model.
It starts with people
At the heart of our practice is the recognition that a person’s wellbeing is never just about their substance use. People are multifaceted bringing a range of relationships, skills, experiences, difficulties, hopes and dreams. No person should ever be reduced to their behaviours.
Most importantly - people should define what recovery means to them - and be supported to do so. That is why we have a range of ways in which we integrate harm reduction approaches within different services.
We want each person to be able to be themselves, to have the psychological and physical safety to connect and be empowered to bring their passions, skills and creativity to life. We want them to and find support that matters to them and works for them.
Our Safer Services model
What we do – Strengthening our practices
- Enhanced harm reduction leadership and modelling
- Workforce development, learning and tools
- Co-production and co-design practices
- Evidence-based harm reduction interventions
- Digital access and support
How we do it – Strengthening our culture
- Being values-led and holding a shared vision
- Being trauma informed
- Being legal
- Learning with others
- Asking ‘what more could we do?’
Using evidence to save lives
We have adapted and changed our policy and invested in training and development so that we can deliver a high tolerant and enhanced harm reduction approach across our services. This evidence based approach helps us keep people safe - creating spaces that are understanding and can respond to what people need.
Our approach includes:
- Driving change through our harm reduction champions network
- Developing Best Practice Guides, adapting policies and developing training that has been shaped and informed by people with lived experience of substance use
- Training our staff and volunteers to carry and deliver Naloxone (a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose)
- Injecting Equipment Provision (IEP) to enable safer drug-taking with new equipment
- Exploring a digital approach to harm reduction for women by co-producing resources and the app By My Side, including wound care resources
- Hosting conversation cafes and developing Naloxone Safety Plans
- Delivering presentations and training to help create change we want to see in Scotland.
Why this matters
We want everyone to be treated with dignity and respect. We want everyone who accesses our services to have the right tools, advice and support that can help them stay safe. We want staff, volunteers and partners to be more informed, skilled and confident in the ways they can help save lives.
