Harm Reduction Partner Information

• 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
  • Hormone Injection Supplies
• Learn more about harm reduction supplies and programs for GBQ+ Men & Gender Diverse People, and order free safer sex, safer substance use and hormone injection supplies by mail order across BC by visiting https://checkhimout.ca/hr/
• 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  

• 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

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 – 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
• Poster: New Normal - What's in your drugs

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.

Youth Harm Reduction: a toolkit for service providers

This toolkit was designed to assist Interior Health staff, community partners, schools and others who work with youth to find credible harm reduction information, resources and tools to support them in the important work they do.

The toolkit focuses primarily on harm reduction and substance use. Harm reduction approaches present the real risks of using substances while also providing information on how to reduce risks. It is an evidence-based approach to providing care and support that is based in respect, compassion and inclusion.

Access the toolkit

Sections of the toolkit

• Introduction
• Information for Schools
• Curriculum and Education Programs
• Information for Parents and Caregivers
• Drug Poisoning (Overdose) Response
• Substances and Harm Reduction Tips
• Find Harm Reduction Services
• Legislation and Policies
• Guiding Documents
• Statistics and Reports
• Professional Development
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Other Related Toolkits

Other resources

• Youth Harm Reduction Program Overview: Information on the role and services provided by the Youth Harm Reduction Program
• Sexual Wellness (Foundry BC)

• 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?
• Harm Reduction Supplies - Reference Sheet 2022
• Pamphlets:
  • Chalk Lung
  • Cotton Fever
  • Safer Smoking
  • Vein Care
  • Abscess Care

• 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. The recommendations below are for Canadian harm reduction programs that provide service to people who use drugs and are at risk for HIV, HCV and other harms:

• BC Harm Reduction Strategies and Services Policy and Guidelines (towardtheheart.com)
• 2021 recommendations 
• Part I – supply distribution, safer drugs use education, overdose prevention.   
• Part II – program models, testing, vaccination, first aid referrals, counselling, and community development. 

Blue lights are sometimes installed in publicly-accessible washrooms to discourage injecting drug use. The lights are intended to visually obscure superficial veins, thereby making it difficult to inject drugs intravenously. We recommend against placing blue lights in publicly-accessible washrooms. 

• Read our recommendation

• 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.

• Fall 2022
• Summer 2022
• Spring 2022
• Fall/Winter 2021
• Spring/Summer 2021
• Fall/Winter 2020
• Summer/Fall 2020

• Organizing for Safety (Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions): Learn what event organizers can do to prevent and respond to an overdose.
• Public Health Guidelines: Major Planned Events (Health Protection Branch - Ministry of Health): Offers information on the event organizer’s role in planning for public health concerns and reducing incidents associated with major planned events. In addition, they include details on obtaining necessary approvals from the local health authority.
• The Manual of Psychedelic Support (Psychedelic Care Publications): A comprehensive guide to setting up and running compassionate care services for people having difficult drug experiences at music festivals and similar events.

• The Drug Resource & Education Project: Helpful resources on this site for harm reduction and drug checking at music festivals. Includes:
  • Downloadable resources such as data collection sheets, drug checking disclaimers, job descriptions for drug checking teams and more…
  • Guide to applying for the appropriate legal exemptions
• Applying as a pop up testing site: To apply as a pop up testing site, view the documents below for Interior Health guidance:
  • Distributed drug checking information package (Interior Health)
  • 2022 Guidelines Drug Checking Methodology (Trans European Drug Information)
  • Drug Checking at Music Festivals: A How-to-Guide (ANKORS Harm Reduction Project)

• Creating safer spaces at festival (Festival Safe): information on how to make festivals feel safe and diverse for all attendees.
• Safer Spaces Resources (The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings): resources for both event attendees and organizations to ensure they are providing safer spaces and support.
• Creating a Safer Space Program (Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton): A basic framework to create and deliver a safer space program.

• Video on Shambhala Music Festival harm reduction program