Harm Reduction 101 – A Practical Approach

THIS COURSE MEETS NYCB REQUIREMENTS FOR INITIAL CARC CERTIFICATION AND RECREDENTIALING FOR CRPA/CARC

One of the primary goals of this 12-Hour training is to create a safe environment for learning and exploring one’s own values and beliefs surrounding harm reduction wherein new knowledge transfer can occur and previous practices of working with People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) can be challenged and/or enhanced.

• Define harm reduction as an evidence-based practice and as a social movement.
• Compare and contrast principles of harm reduction and modern recovery principles.
• Review common recovery pathways and discuss the importance of advocating for multiple pathways to recovery/wellness (including Harm Reduction).
• Describe how the Harm Reduction (HR) approach can be utilized to relate to People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) as an advocate.
• Describe how the HR approach emphasizes strategies to help PWUD identify their rights and responsibilities.
• Discuss how the HR approach emphasizes the importance of self-care. 
• Describe and utilize effective coaching techniques such as Motivational Interviewing. Define and recognize the Stages of Change.
• Examine why the Harm Reduction (HR) approach can assist with building rapport. Discuss the ways in which HR can be utilized to engage PWUDs and increase the likelihood that they will be receptive to recovery-related education, share information, and ask for help.
• Discuss how HR emphasizes providing information about the benefits of healthy behaviors. This involves the comfortable use of communication strategies like open-ended questions, affirmation, summaries (Motivational Interviewing) and how it relates to providing information that supports health and wellness and promotes positive change.
• Discuss the Stages of Change and how to: determine PWUD’ readiness for change, commitment to change, and how to facilitate change.
• Identify how HR and other approaches can help the PWUD navigate care systems and recovery supports across the continuum of care.
• Provide examples of how HR strategies assist the individual to identify support systems and build on strengths and resiliencies.
• Discuss how to differentiate between types and levels of advocacy through the lens of HR.
• Describe HR and other methods to recognize a PWUD's need for individualized support options, establish rapport, and build trust.  

There is a long history of peer-based recovery support services within the alcohol and other drug problems arena, and the opening of the twenty-first century is witnessing a rebirth of such services These services are embedded in new social institutions such as recovery advocacy organizations and recovery support centers and in paid and volunteer service roles. These peer-based recovery support roles go by various titles: recovery coaches, recovery mentors, personal recovery assistants, recovery support specialists, and peer specialists.