The Strategy of Harm Reduction in Work with People Addicted to Drugs and Alcohol

Abstract

The policy of EU Member States, the United States, South America and Australia is heading towards the restructuring of the support system for addicts by implementing actions meant to limit the health and social damages resulting from the use of psychoactive substances. Many countries offer access to low-threshold programmes whereby the participant is not forced to maintain abstinence or submit to the excessive rules and obligations of a rehabilitation center. Harm reduction is a philosophy based on pragmatic and realistic goals of working with addicts and users. It assumes that each change, even the smallest, is important and should be supported. Harm reduction programmes usually function in several sectors of social assistance – therapy, social rehabilitation, dangerous behavior prevention and social services. In Poland, the widening of the scope of the treatment offer by harm reduction programmes is still marginal, and the changes in the system of treating addiction do not keep up with the dynamic changes in the pattern of using psychoactive substances. The monolithic system of assistance, based on abstinence, is not sufficient and does not respond to the changing needs in terms of helping those people who require it.

Keywords

• harm reduction
• addiction
• treatment programmes
• addiction prevention