Answering Hard Questions

Evidence-Based Answers Are The Solution 

Today's Learning Moment 02-13-23 – Answering Hard Questions

Written by and for people with Lived Experience - Port Alberni Community Action Team - Families Helping Families

Answering Hard Questions

·         “How is making opioids (e.g. heroin and fentanyl), cocaine (powder or crack), methamphetamines (meth), MDMA (ecstasy) legal, helping to stop drug abuse?”

·          “Ya, so let's start handing it out like candy 🙄”

·         “Substance disorder? That's a new take on things. When did “addiction” and/or “abuse” become terms of the past?”

– These are just a few of the ill-informed questions and statements we hear all the time.

What do you do when you run into family, friends or even strangers who pose these uninformed questions or statements?

Sometimes, we want to rip our hair out or take a pillow and scream into it until the world changes and accepts the latest science. Usually, we get over that negativity and unconstructive behaviour pretty quickly. Then we go to our deliberate and laborious, and what we believe is the most effective strategy. EDUCATION!

Education is the high road. It’s not for the weak or impatient. It’s hard work and often feels like the goalpost is thousands of miles away, however, we believe it is the only strategy likely to shift people’s entrenched mindset around substance disorders.

Let’s get started – We’ll give you some knowledge so you can speak from an informed perspective AND some practical tools to use when faced with hard questions coming from less informed perspectives that are not science-based.

Evidence-Based Practice

We start with understanding Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) which are methods used to review, analyze, and translate the latest scientific-based evidence. The goal is to quickly incorporate the best available research, along with clinical experience and patient input, into clinical practice that allows all Health Professionals to make informed patient-care decisions.

Evidence-Based Harm Reduction
 
We’ve come a long way in our understanding of harm reduction and substance disorders in the last several decades. We had to! Our world is facing a growing substance use disorder (SUD) epidemic, which is not getting better any time soon. All of us are impacted by the increasing prevalence of SUDs and the associated problems that can arise from them, such as crime, poverty, and homelessness. However, there is hope in the form of evidence-based harm reduction. Evidence-based harm reduction (EBHR) is a broadly inclusive approach to SUDs that focuses on reducing the harms associated with drug use while helping people to improve their health and quality of life. We’ll provide an overview of EBHR, its evidence-based solutions, and its many benefits to everyone – not just people suffering from substance disorders.

Introduction

Harm reduction refers to a set of strategies and practices whose intentions are to reduce the harms associated with substance use without requiring abstinence or abstinence-oriented addiction treatment. It is a public health approach that has been successfully implemented in many countries, including Canada, Australia, and many European nations. The primary goal of harm reduction is to keep people alive until they are ready to accept their healing path from substance disorders. Harm reduction reduces the harms associated with substance use and helps people improve their health and quality of life.

SUDs are a group of disorders characterized by a person’s repeated use of drugs or alcohol despite negative consequences. SUDs can range from mild to severe and can cause a variety of physical and psychological health problems, as well as social and economic costs. The prevalence of SUDs has been steadily increasing in recent years and is having a major impact on all of society

Evidence-Based Solutions

EBHR is a comprehensive approach to SUDs that focuses on reducing the harms associated with drug use while helping individuals to improve their health and quality of life. It involves a range of evidence-based strategies and interventions, such as education, safe drug supply, and overdose prevention.

Education is an important component of EBHR. Education helps everyone understand the risks associated with substance use and how to reduce them. It also provides information on the signs and symptoms of an overdose and how to get help if needed.

Safe drug supply is another important aspect of EBHR. This involves providing access to safe, high-quality drugs that have been tested for purity or potency and are free from contaminants. This reduces the risk of overdose and other harms associated with substance use. An example of this strategy is Government controlled alcohol supplies.

Overdose prevention is also an important part of EBHR. This involves providing access to naloxone, a medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, as well as providing education on how to recognize and respond to an overdose. Don’t Use Alone strategies also is part of EBHR.

Benefits of Evidence-Based Harm Reduction

EBHR has been shown to have numerous benefits for individuals with SUDs, as well as for the general public. One major benefit is reduced mortality rates. Studies have shown that EBHR interventions are associated with decreased rates of death due to overdose, HIV, hepatitis C, and other diseases related to drug use.

EBHR also reduces the cost of care for individuals with SUDs by reducing the number of hospitalizations and emergency department visits due to overdoses or other medical complications related to drug use. This can result in significant savings for both individuals and society as a whole. Everybody can usually appreciate fewer taxes.

Finally, EBHR interventions have been shown to improve the overall quality of life for individuals with SUDs by providing access to safe drugs, education on safer drug use practices, and reduced risk of overdose or other medical complications related to drug use.

Finally

In conclusion, evidence-based harm reduction is a science-based approach to SUDs that succeeds in reducing the harms associated with substance use while helping people improve their health and quality of life. It involves a range of evidence-based strategies and interventions, such as education, safe drug supply, and overdose prevention.

EBHR has numerous benefits for individuals with SUDs, including reduced mortality rates, reduced cost of care, and improved overall quality of life. All of us in society are also positively impacted by these benefits as they lead to reduced crime rates, lower healthcare costs, and improved social outcomes for individuals with SUDs. Everyone needs to support evidence-based harm reduction approaches. It’s the best science-based way to help reduce the harms associated with substance use disorders.

Last, But Not Least

Here is that practical tool we said we’d share with you. We came up with a FAQ of questions and evidence-based answers. In addition, we included resources/citations from research papers or well-respected sources. You can find it here: https://ptalbcat.blogspot.com/p/bridging-gap.html You can point people to our FAQ page or use a specific answer when you go into your own education mode.

Author: Ron Merk  – Ron is a person with family-lived experience. He advocates for people with substance or mental illness. (This article was written with the help of AI -accessing the combined knowledge of humanity)

Note: We may use words or phrases in our articles that are not first person, or the latest best-in-practice language. Sometimes we will use older, non-informed jargon. to clarify and inform people who are learning the new non-stigmatizing language. (linking old language usage to new terms) You can tell when you run into these old or non-inclusive words or phrases. They will be in quotation marks - eg old word “addiction” – When we introduce new inclusive language, words or phrases, they will be in Parenthesis - eg (people with substance disorders).

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