Training Overview:
Meaningful involvement of people who use drugs can increase support for harm reduction policy and advocacy efforts; challenge myths related to drug use, HIV, and viral hepatitis; and reframe the narrative supporting criminalization. Opportunities for job training and employment are in themselves an important component of harm reduction in communities of people who use drugs. More importantly, meaningful involvement of people who use drugs ensures the leadership and decision-making power of people with lived experience of drug use in the response to the intersecting crises of drug use, viral hepatitis, and HIV.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Define three principles of harm reduction in relation to substance use treatment.
• Identify three key attributes that support applying harm reduction approaches and principles.
• Review challenges and barriers to treatment and recovery that people who use drugs face.
• Explore how harm reduction can protect and re-engage people who experience relapse during substance use treatment and their recovery journey.

Facilitator: Tanagra Melgarejo, MSW, National Harm Reduction Coalition 

Organized by the Health and Recovery Training Institute