Training Overview:

In this two hour training participants will have the opportunity to explore what communication is, how our identity and our experience intersects/impacts our ability to communicate. They will also unpack and discuss the concept of power in communication and how to apply a harm reduction approach when communicating with others. 

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

• Identify what is communication and why we communicate 
• Name the impact of filters, distortions and other barriers in communication 
• Practice active listening 
• Define what effective communication is 
• Understand the importance of boundaries in communication  

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Training Overview:

This two hours training is designed to help non-clinical service providers engage with their clients who use drugs around issues related to health care. It will explore the systemic and individual context in which people who use drugs (PWUDs) seek health care and the unique challenges they face in accessing quality health care. The training will provide tools and strategies to offer clients when navigating the health care system, highlighting ways to strengthen and build a more positive relationship between clients who use drugs and their health care providers. 

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

• Identify some of the unique health care needs of PWUD 
• Identify different points of access to Healthcare for PWUD. 
• Describe the institutional, social and behavioral factors that influence this, including drug related stigma. 
• Define Patient – EASE in measuring the attributes of effective healthcare provision– Patient centered, Efficient and coordinated, accessible, safe and confidential, and Effective and competent.  
• Develop strategies to assist PWUD in preparing for healthcare visits including decisions around when and how to disclose their drug use to medical providers. 
• Identify strategies and tools to help clients who use drugs to build positive, trusting relationships with their health care provider. 

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Training Overview:

This training is designed primarily for service providers without formal mental health training. The training provides an overview of trauma and mental health issues, roots of trauma and how harm reduction can be a tool/framework that can help us a practitioner understand and unpack the way trauma impacts our participants’ lives and our work. Case examples highlighting realistic expectations and effective responses will be discussed, with particular attention to people with co-occurring disorders (mental illness and substance use) in the context of harm reduction programs and settings.

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

• Define trauma.
• Identify three different mental health symptoms as it relates to drug use.
• Identify risk factors for substance use as it relates to people living with mental.illness or with other mental health conditions.
• Identify three strategies for working with substance users experiencing trauma.

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Training Overview:

Facing death and the grief that comes with death is never easy. When the death is due to an overdose, or happens to a person who uses drugs, the death is often met with lack of understanding and sympathy.

In this two-hour training we will hold space for unpacking complex feelings around grief and death, share strategies for processing grief, and brainstorm organizational and institutional supports needed to sustainably hold grief around overdose and death to structural violence.

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

• Identify and be able to respond to common narratives around grief and death.
• List at least two strategies for processing and unpacking grief in their lives.
• Identify at least one organizational or institutional support needed for overdose prevention work.

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