Harm Reduction – A Model to stay Connected with Substance Illness Family Members

 

Written by and for people with Lived Experience

Today’s Learning Moment – 09 08 20 Issue:

Harm Reduction – A Model to stay Connected with Substance Illness Family Members:

Often the biggest challenge for families is how to relate with the people they love who have substance illness.

Embracing the principals of harm reduction can be one model to use to stay connected with your substance illness family member. Harm reduction aims to keep people safe and minimize death, disease, and injury from high-risk behaviour. Harm reduction begins with accepting that they have an illness you can’t control. It involves a range of support, services and strategies to improve your and their knowledge, skills, resources, and supports for them and your family to be safer and healthier.

You can apply principles of harm reduction, which include:

1.    Reality: Accept that non-medical use of mood-altering substances is a near-universal human cultural phenomenon, including your loved one. You’re in this for the long haul.

2.    Human rights: Respect basic human dignity and rights of your family member, including the right to self-determination and informed decision making in a judgment-free context, which may include continuing to use substances that you don’t agree with.

3.    Focus on harms: Prioritize decreasing the negative consequences of substance use to them and others and recognize incremental changes as success;

4.    Maximize intervention options: Recognize that there are a variety of different prevention or treatment approaches and people who use substances should be able to choose and access a broad range of interventions based on their needs and wants.

5.    The priority of immediate goals: Meet the person where they are in their drug use and address immediate needs first. This could be a safe place or having safe equipment like clean needles and equipment.

6.    Involve them as an active participant in their own care and the planning of harm reduction policies and interventions. Recognize individuals’ competency to make choices and change their own lives. Recognize that in this moment and at this time, they may choose NOT to accept help or healing.

7.    Accept the place they are in their journey. They may not even recognize their substance illness or not be ready to begin healing.

8.    Don’t ask why they use drugs – ask what is the pain they’re trying to stop? 

Outside of harm reduction is your own conditions or boundaries that you need to keep your sanity and health as well as maintain a safe environment for you and other family members. Identify your needs and talk with your loved with substance illness so they know what the conditions are for you and them in your home and your relationship. Be prepared and have a plan of what you’ll do if your loved one can’t live up to your conditions.

Families Helping Families is an initiative of the Port Alberni Community Action Team. We send out “Learning Moment” articles regularly to help folks understand substance illness. Knowledge is vital in understanding the illness of our family members. You may copy, distribute or share our articles as long as you retain the attribution. You can be added to our distribution list by dropping us a note to - albernihelp@gmail.com