This is a website from the National Institute for Health Care Management that provides data on the fourth wave of the opioid crisis, polysubstance use involving opioids and stimulants, such as cocaine and methamphetamine.
Harm Reduction Resources
- Educational
- Overdose prevention
- Addiction Treatment Providers
- Community Coalitions
- Community Health Officials
- Harm Reduction Specialists
- Policymakers
This toolkit provides information on harm reduction services that include strategies to design and deliver harm reduction programs to the Boston community, as well ways to engage community members and potential users of these services. These strategies aim to educate the Boston community on how to use and engage with harm reduction services, and are likely applicable to other cities.
- Housing, Education, and Employment
- Overdose prevention
- Syringe service program / Needle exchange
- Advocates / Peers
- Community Coalitions
- Community Health Officials
- Harm Reduction Specialists
This report is published by the Center for Court Innovation and describes a reconstruction of current drug court practices through the lens of harm reduction and bridging the gap between these contrasting paradigms. The report suggests more effective ways for drug courts to practice, such as abandoning the abstinence-only model, eliminating jail sanctions, and changing drug testing protocols.
- Educational
- Overdose prevention
- Syringe service program / Needle exchange
- Community Coalitions
- Community Health Officials
- Criminal Justice
- Harm Reduction Specialists
- Law Enforcement
- Policymakers
This is an article from EMS World, a journal tailored to emergency medical services, that summarizes the post-overdose response of Palm Beach County Fire Rescue (PBCFR), which includes utilizing both mobile integrated healthcare (MIH) as the bridge between EMS and long-term treatment and peer outreach.
- Post-overdose response
- Advocates / Peers
- First Responders
This is a report from the Police Executive Research Forum that documents a forum put together for public safety and public health experts to discuss a comprehensive response to the opioid crisis. Information on building successful partnerships is discussed and successful joint public safety-public health interventions are highlighted within this document.
- Diversion
- Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
- Overdose prevention
- Community Coalitions
- Community Health Officials
- Criminal Justice
- First Responders
- Harm Reduction Specialists
- Law Enforcement
- Policymakers
This academic paper describes a study done to address the false belief among law enforcement that there is a risk of overdose from accidentally inhaling or touching fentanyl. The results showed that a brief training module can have a corrective effect on this false belief.
- Educational
- Community Health Officials
- Criminal Justice
- First Responders
- Law Enforcement
This is a report from Quantum Units Education that provides clinical guidelines to comprehensively address opioid use disorder (OUD) in homeless populations, with a discussion on barriers to OUD treatment, successful interventions, and promising practices.
- Comprehensive services
- Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
- Outreach
- Overdose prevention
- Community Health Officials
- Harm Reduction Specialists
- Hospitals
- Medical
This is a free training tailored to first responders that educates participants on harm reduction and treatment and how first responders can play a vital role in delivering these services to their community.
- Overdose prevention
- Post-overdose response
- Community Health Officials
- First Responders
- Harm Reduction Specialists
- Law Enforcement
This is an academic paper that provides a framing for understanding addiction that can mitigate blame and stigma while also acknowledging the moral dimension of addictive behavior.
- Addiction Treatment Providers
- Advocates / Peers
- Policymakers
This report from the CDC analyzes provisional data for nearly half of the states in the United States from the first half of 2019. Preliminary results show that nearly a third of overdose deaths involved opioids and stimulants, 80% of overdose deaths involved opioids (mostly fentanyl), and three out of five overdose deaths had a documented potential opportunity to deliver overdose prevention services.
- Educational
- Addiction Treatment Providers
- Community Coalitions
- Community Health Officials
- Harm Reduction Specialists
- Policymakers
This is a report from the CDC that shows the increase of syringe service programs (SSP) offering overdose education and naloxone education (OEND) over time. 94% of SSPs were offering OEND in 2019, up from 55% in 2013. However, there is geographic variation, with southeastern states and middle Atlantic states still lagging behind despite high overdose death rates.
- Overdose prevention
- Syringe service program / Needle exchange
- Community Coalitions
- Community Health Officials
- Harm Reduction Specialists
- Policymakers
This is a report from the Vera Institute of Justice that serves as a resource for jurisdictions seeking to rethink how they respond to drug use. It describes a range of approaches that exist at the intersection of health and criminal justice, highlights several innovative programs, and provides recommendations for shifting practice and drug policy.
- Diversion
- Educational
- Housing, Education, and Employment
- Overdose prevention
- Safe Injection Site
- Syringe service program / Needle exchange
- Community Coalitions
- Community Health Officials
- Criminal Justice
- Harm Reduction Specialists
- Law Enforcement
- Policymakers