Harm Reduction

Supply Distribution

• Toward the Heart - information for harm reduction sites: Registration process, order forms, important announcements.

• Printable harm reduction supply lists: 

  • Safer injection supplies

  • Safer inhalation supplies

  • Safer sex supplies

• FAQ - needle tips and barrels

• Best practice recommendations for Canadian Harm Reduction Programs that provide service to people who use drugs and are at risk for HIV, HCV, and other harms: Part I – supply distribution, safer drugs use education, overdose prevention   

Needle/sharps disposal

• Safe Needle Disposal: Information on safe disposal of sharps, what to do if you find an improperly discarded needle as well as tool kits for municipalities and more.

• BCCDC position statement on needle buyback programs

• Teaching children about needle safety

Take Home Naloxone (THN): Information for current and prospective Take Home Naloxone sites - how to become a Take Home Naloxone site, training materials, order forms and more. 

Facility Overdose Response Box (FORB): Information for current and prospective FORB sites – registration information, training, policy and supply ordering.

Information for current and prospective overdose prevention sites.

• Overdose Prevention - Sites Manual

• FAQ - Responding to Atypical Overdose Presentations in Community

• Unexpected (atypical) opioid overdose response

• Synthetic Cannabinoids Overdose

• Stimulant Overdose

• Benzodiazepines and Opioids Overdose

• Criteria for Overdose Prevention Services

• Take Home Naloxone: A Guide to Promote Staff resiliency and Prevent Distress After an Overdose Reversal

Community agencies have a role to play in communicating drug alerts. A drug alert should be considered when there is evidence to suggest that a cluster of overdoses/increased overdose trend or other harmful and atypical responses to a substance has been linked to this activity. It is important that these incidents are reported to the health authority for further review and follow up.

If community agencies have concerns regarding an overdose risk in their community they should contact their harm reduction coordinator during regular business hours. After hours, please contact the Medical Health Officers on call.

Regular business hours: (Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.) Contact the harm reduction program.

After hours: Contact the Medical Health Officer on call at 1-866-457-5648.

 If a community agency wishes to issue a drug alert, it is important that best practices are followed.

Recommendations for Communicating Drug Alerts: Care must be taken when advising substance using populations about the dangers of adulterants or changes in potency of street drugs. The BC Centre for Disease Control has developed recommendations based on consultation with people who use drugs and health service providers.

Template for Communicating Drug Alerts: Use this template to create an alert poster. Be sure to follow the recommendations above.

• Benzo Test Strips Update for Drug Checking Sites – April 30, 2021

• Drug Checking Guide 

• Drug Checking – Disclaimer

• Drug Checking Evaluation - April 2018 to April 2019

• Fentanyl Test Strip: Drug Checking FAQ for Service Providers

• Fentanyl Test Strips: Train the Trainer Course - Online course teaches participants how to do check drugs for the presence of fentanyl using a fentanyl test strip (FTS). Once successfully completed participants can conduct FTS drug checking and train others to do so. 

• Procedural posters – Fentanyl test strip and FTIR machines

• Brochure: Drug Checking with Fentanyl Test Strips

• Safe Care and Transport of FTIR Spectrometer

One of the core principles of harm reduction is the meaningful engagement of people with lived experience, or peers. Peer involvement in service delivery, program development, and community meetings/consultations is invaluable in creating harm reduction programs and services that are equitable and accessible.

The following resources are considered required reading for service providers wanting to engage peers in any capacity.

• Peer Engagement Principles and Best Practices: A Guide for BC Health Authorities and other Providers

• Peer Toolkit  This toolkit provides practical guidance and tools to assist community based organizations or groups to deliver social and emotional peer support services to people living with HIV and/or hepatitis (Hep C).

• First Nations Health Authority - Harm Reduction

• Chee Mamuk: Provincial Aboriginal program that provides innovative and culturally appropriate training, educational resources and wise practice models in STIs, hepatitis and HIV.

• BC HRSS guidelines for providing harm reduction supplies to youth: This document has been developed as a guide for harm reduction service providers (e.g. nurses, outreach workers, social work, peers, etc.) when engaging with mature minors who are seeking harm reduction supplies – see appendix 4 page 22 

• Naloxone Distribution and Youth – Duty to Report (Toward the Heart)

• Sexual Wellness (Foundry BC)

• Substance Use (Foundry BC)

• Sensible Cannabis Education: A Toolkit for Educating Youth

• YouthCO: A youth-led HIV and Hep C organization that seeks to reduce stigma related to HIV and Hep C throughout BC through peer education and support.

• CATIE (Canadian AIDS Treatment and Education Exchange) has a number of free resources available for clients. Materials are written in plain language and are easy to understand. Some that we recommend are listed below:  

  • Choosing a Safer Injection Site

  • Safer Sex Guide

• ANKORS YouTube Channel: AIDS Network Kootenay Outreach and Support Society (ANKORS) YouTube channel provides harm reduction educational resources aimed at service users, health care/social service providers, and the general public. Videos on safer injecting, vein care, and more. 

• Toward the Heart: Videos and printable handouts on safer smoking and safer injecting practices.

• Synthetic Cannabinoids - What are they?

• Guide to Harm Reduction: Interior Health developed manual includes information and tools to integrate harm reduction principals into practice; maximize distribution of harm reduction supplies and provide harm reduction education.

• Harm Reduction 101: Understanding harm reduction principles and practice

• Trauma Informed Practice Guide: Developed to support the translation of trauma-informed principles into practice. Includes strategies to guide the work of practitioners assisting clients with mental health and substance use (MHSU) concerns in British Columbia.

• Trauma Informed Practice and the Opioid Crisis: This resource builds on the Trauma-Informed Practice Guide – focusing on the opioid crisis in Canada

• Ankors Street College: Offers learning opportunities for street involved people who use drugs. Subjects like overdose prevention, vein care, and safer methamphetamine use practices are delivered in a relaxed and non-hierarchical manner that encourages participation and knowledge exchange,rather than a top-down learning experience. Sessions are low barrier, can take place in either an individual or a group setting, and are designed to meet people where they are at.

• Fentanyl Test Strips: Train the Trainer Course - Online course teaches participants how to do check drugs for the presence of fentanyl using a fentanyl test strip (FTS). Once successfully completed participants can conduct FTS drug checking and train others to do so.

• Connecting - A Guide to Using Harm Reduction Supplies as Engagement Tools: Harm reduction supply distribution offers many opportunities to engage with people who use drugs and promote safer using practices. This guide for frontline workers provides information on everything from how to use harm reduction supplies, safer injecting and inhalation tips, vein care, preparing substances for use and more.   

Best practices are a series of recommendations for service design and delivery, based on the best available scientific evidence.

• Best Practice Recommendations for Canadian Harm Reduction Programs that Provide Service to People Who Use Drugs and are at Risk for HIV, HCV, and Other Harms: Part I – supply distribution, safer drugs use education, overdose prevention.   

• Best Practice Recommendations for Canadian Harm Reduction Programs that Provide Service to People Who Use Drugs and are at Risk for HIV, HCV, and Other Harms: Part II – program models, testing, vaccination, first aid referrals, counselling, and community development. 

• Use of Blue Lights in Publicly-Accessible Washrooms

• Toward the Heart: Provincial hub for harm reduction services in BC. Includes information on overdose prevention, naloxone, and safer sex as well as a site finder to help locate harm reduction services across the province. Provides information and guidance for new harm reduction sites on registration, set up, ordering training and more.  

• Harm Reduction: A Community Guide: Ministry of Health manual to assist BC municipalities in taking a leadership and facilitative role to reduce the level of drug related harm in their communities.

• BC Centre on Substance Use: a provincially networked organization with a mandate to develop, help implement, and evaluate evidence-based approaches to substance use and addiction.

• Harm Reduction International: a leading non-governmental organization working to reduce the negative health, social and human rights impacts of drug use and drug policy by promoting evidence-based public health policies and practices, and human rights based approaches to drugs.

• Smart Sex Resource Website by the BC Centre for Disease Control: information and resources on sexual health for health care providers and clients.

• Spring/Summer 2021

• Fall/Winter 2020

• Summer/Fall 2020

• Winter 2019

• Fall 2019

• Summer 2019

• Spring 2019