The Harm Reduction Series is designed to provide care givers and providers with information on best practices for caring for individuals who are actively using substances. The education series will teach ways to expand the treatment continuum to include engaging and keeping people safe when they are actively using substances including alcohol, opioids, stimulants, and tobacco. The series is designed for a broad range of audiences and each module will be presented with an expert from the community to provide insight regarding strategies for engagement and implementation.
The basics of overdose education and response will be reviewed. The care of patients who have a history of overdose to prevent additional overdose will be discussed. The training will review the efficacy of bystander overdose education and prevention. Novel strategies including test strips, sedation monitoring centers, safe consumption sites, and safe supply will be discussed along with the legality in the US. The pharmacology of nasal naloxone and the physiological implications of opioid blockade will be reviewed. Harm reduction strategies related to polysubstance use and when “the Narcan is just not enough” will be explored.
CE/CME credits pending approval.
Intended audience
The entire multidisciplinary team providing treatment for substance use disorders in an office-based setting as well as anyone in a clinical or non-clinical position that is interested in learning about harm reduction.
Objectives
- Participants will review the epidemiology of opioid overdose death throughout the United States.
- Participants will be able to identify metaphysical contributions to the associated risk of opioid overdose for specific subpopulations of people using substances.
- Participants will be able to appraise the effectiveness of current/traditional models of opioid overdose prevention.
- Participants will be able to assess the effectiveness of novel opioid overdose prevention strategies and their feasibility in the community setting.
- Participants will be able to identify the concerns associated with opioid overdose in the context of polysubstance use.
Sponsored by
Boston Medical Center Grayken Center for Addiction, Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Addiction Services.
