resources

Harm Reduc­tion 101

If your agency has access to Shared Health Learn­ing Man­age­ment Sys­tem, we rec­om­mend that you pro­mote this online course with your staff. Go to http://​shared​healthmb​.ca/​h​e​a​l​t​h​-​p​r​o​v​i​d​e​r​s​/​d​i​g​i​t​a​l​h​e​a​l​t​h/lms (search Harm Reduction).

You may also want to access CATIE’s Harm Reduc­tion Fun­da­men­tals: A toolk­it for ser­vice providers. This 4 unit toolk­it is avail­able for free to com­plete at your own pace.

You may also want to check the work­shops offered by Man­i­to­ba Harm Reduc­tion Net­work. These work­shops are offered at a fee. 

WHRA Harm Reduc­tion Posi­tion State­ment pro­vides an under­stand­ing on evi­dence-informed approach­es to work­ing with peo­ple who use drugs with a focus on the impact of the harms of crim­i­nal­iza­tion and stig­ma on struc­tural­ly dis­ad­van­taged pop­u­la­tions, such as peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness, peo­ple who use intra­venous sub­stances, peo­ple who have a his­to­ry of incar­cer­a­tion, peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties, peo­ple who engage in sur­vival sex work, and peo­ple who are impact­ed by colo­nial­ism. It expands the harm reduc­tion per­spec­tive to sex work and the non-dis­clo­sure of HIV sta­tus. It pro­vides guid­ance for action at orga­ni­za­tion­al level.

The Man­i­to­ba Peer Advi­so­ry Coun­cil of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Com­mu­ni­ty Health (MACH) devel­oped an Agency Self-Assess­ment Tool to sup­port agency con­ver­sa­tions around where harm reduc­tion prac­tice is at cur­rent­ly, and how to move a heal­ing cen­tered harm reduc­tion prac­tice for­ward. This tool would shed light on the cre­ation of an Action Plan for your organization. 

Harm reduc­tion sup­ply distribution

• Best Prac­tice Rec­om­men­da­tions for Cana­di­an Harm Reduc­tion Pro­grams | CATIE — These rec­om­men­da­tions will help ser­vice providers devel­op, redesign and eval­u­ate pro­grams for peo­ple who use drugs and who are at risk for HIV, hepati­tis C, hepati­tis B, and oth­er harms.
• Ontario Harm Reduc­tion Net­work (OHRN) | Home
• Con­nect­ing — Guide to using HR sup­plies as engage­ment tools.pdf (inte​ri​orhealth​.ca)
• Harm-Reduction-Supply-Distribution-Self-Learning-Module-Sept2017.pdf (south​ern​health​.ca)
• Syringe Ser­vices Pro­grams | Nation­al Insti­tute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
• An Evi­dence Brief: Nee­dle and Syringe Exchange Programs

Work­ing with peo­ple who use drugs

Car­ing For Peo­ple Who Use Drugs — WRHA Pro­fes­sion­als – Pro­vid­ing safe and inclu­sive care for peo­ple who use drugs starts with non-judg­men­tal engage­ment. This involves an under­stand­ing that most drug use is not prob­lem­at­ic. Prob­lem­at­ic drug is defined as use that has neg­a­tive con­se­quences for the indi­vid­ual, their friends, fam­i­ly, and/​or soci­ety. This web­page pro­vides links to resources, strate­gies and tools intend­ed to sup­port health care providers and oth­er staff to bet­ter meet the needs of peo­ple who use drugs.

Win­nipeg Harm Reduc­tion Net­work – involv­ing a wide range of stake­hold­ers this Net­work comes togeth­er to increase oppor­tu­ni­ties for agen­cies, com­mu­ni­ty-based groups, and peers to share infor­ma­tion, learn from each oth­er, and address emerg­ing issues in the com­mu­ni­ty. If you are inter­est­ed in learn­ing more, or would like to join, please email jonny@​mhrn.​mb.​ca.

• Man­i­to­ba Harm Reduc­tion Network
• Trau­ma Informed Care | Alber­ta Health Services
• Harm Reduc­tion Imple­men­ta­tion Frame­work: An Evi­dence Brief
• EQUIP Equi­ty Essen­tials — What every health and social ser­vice provider should know

Overdose/​Poisoning Response Resources

Facil­i­ty Over­dose Response 

Many orga­ni­za­tions are seek­ing infor­ma­tion and resources about deal­ing with over­dose or poi­son­ing in their facil­i­ties or in encoun­ters with their clients. This includes hav­ing staff ready to admin­is­ter nalox­one. The provin­cial Take Home Nalox­one Pro­gram, of which Street Con­nec­tions is a dis­tri­b­u­tion site does not offer nalox­one train­ing for occu­pa­tion­al settings.

For staff train­ing, check St. John’s Ambu­lance Opi­oid Response and Nalox­one Programs

Opi­oid Response Train­ing | St John Ambu­lance — Opi­oid Response and Nasal Nalox­one Train­ing | St. John Ambu­lance (reac​tan​dre​verse​.ca)

Many of Winnipeg’s First Aid train­ing com­pa­nies can offer an over­dose response com­po­nent. If your work­place pro­vides rou­tine First Aid/​CPR cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, ask if over­dose response train­ing could be includ­ed in the next session.

For fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion, the Province of Man­i­to­ba has devel­oped rec­om­men­da­tions for over­dose pre­ven­tion and response for ser­vice providers

For addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion, check Toward the Heart’s Nalox­one Course

Nalox­one kits are avail­able for pur­chase at sev­er­al oth­er loca­tions around Win­nipeg and Man­i­to­ba. See a list of phar­ma­cies that sell nalox­one kits.

Take-Home Nalox­one Dis­tri­b­u­tion Program

Health care deliv­ery sites that would like to dis­trib­ute free Take-Home Nalox­one kits to peo­ple at risk of opi­oid over­dose, and fam­i­ly and friends of peo­ple who are at risk of opi­oid over­dose can reg­is­ter as a nalox­one dis­tri­b­u­tion site. If your site does not cur­rent­ly dis­trib­ute take-home nalox­one kits, you may con­sid­er reg­is­ter­ing as a dis­tri­b­u­tion site.

Take-Home Nalox­one Dis­tri­b­u­tion Pro­gram | Health | Province of Man­i­to­ba (gov​.mb​.ca)

Over­dose Response in Washrooms 

For peo­ple who use sub­stances who do not have access to pri­vate spaces for con­sump­tion, wash­rooms can pro­vide a pri­vate space that feels safe. The estab­lish­ment of safer wash­room poli­cies and pro­ce­dures are part of an over­dose response. The fol­low­ing link pro­vides a check­list to assist in deter­min­ing what this inter­ven­tion may require depend­ing on the phys­i­cal space and wash­room oper­a­tions under consideration. 

Washroom-Checklist-Service-Settings.pdf (vch​.ca)

The Safer Bath­room Toolkit

HSHR/PPH Doc­u­ments and Reports

• Safer Wash­room Eval­u­a­tion (2019)
• HSHR Safer Smok­ing Assess­ment (2020)
• HSHR HR Sup­ply Dis­tri­b­u­tion Envi­ron­men­tal Scan (2020)
• Safer Smok­ing: Intro­duc­ing Bub­ble Smok­ing Equip­ment (2022)
• Win­nipeg TRACKS Phase 4 Sur­vey Report (2022)
• Test that Shit Study: A Drug Test­ing Pilot Project in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Meet­ing the Moment, Nine Cir­cles (2022)
• Win­nipeg Harm Reduc­tion Sup­ply Dis­tri­b­u­tion Pro­gram Par­tic­i­pant Sur­vey (2023)

Oth­er Local Evidence 

Sub­stance Relat­ed Harms Sur­veil­lance Report from the Epi­demi­ol­o­gy and Sur­veil­lance Unit, Gov­ern­ment of Manitoba 

Updat­ed at the begin­ning of each quar­ter, this inter­ac­tive report, pro­vides up to date infor­ma­tion on sub­stance use and relat­ed harms in Man­i­to­ba. Four key data sources (Office of the Chief of Med­ical Exam­in­er, Hos­pi­tal Data, Emer­gency Med­ical Ser­vices, Take-Home Nalox­one Kit Dis­tri­b­u­tion data), and cor­re­spond­ing met­rics are dis­played, which are used in the ongo­ing sur­veil­lance of sub­stance relat­ed harms.

Data from Win­nipeg Fire and Para­medic Ser­vices (City of Win­nipeg): cas­es where WFPS admin­is­tered naloxone/​Narcan and when respond­ing to sub­stance use-relat­ed med­ical emergency.

City of Win­nipeg Open Data Catalogue

The Man­i­to­ba Col­lab­o­ra­tive Data Por­tal pro­vides alter­na­tive and user-friend­ly rep­re­sen­ta­tions of the data appear­ing in the City of Win­nipeg Open Data Cat­a­logue. This infor­ma­tion can be found at: 

Over­dose and Drug Relat­ed Harms — Man­i­to­ba Col­lab­o­ra­tive Data Por­tal (mbcdp​.ca)

Web­site aimed at pro­vid­ing clear, con­cise infor­ma­tion about Super­vised Con­sump­tion Sites and how they could be a tool in pre­vent­ing over­dos­es and oth­er neg­a­tive health out­comes that can result from sub­stance use. The is host­ed by Sun­shine House in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Man­i­to­ba Harm Reduc­tion Net­work — Super­vised Con­sump­tion Sites and Man­i­to­ba | Safer​Sites​.ca