Learning from each other : Partager nos connaissances : améliorer les programmes et pratiques de la réduction des méfaits au Canada

The aim of this project was to identify, document and disseminate information on some of the more innovative and useful ways that harm reduction programs and practices are being offered and some of the more effective solutions to overcoming the challenges to offering harm reduction. [...] We believe that this information will help service organizations and people who use drugs to learn from each other and to discover new ways to address some of the difficulties and obstacles they continue to face in this country. [...] It is an approach to policies and programs for people who use drugs which is directed towards decreasing the adverse health, social and economic consequences of drug use and drug distribution to the individual user and the community. [...] Therefore, the first priority is to decrease the negative consequences of drug use to the user and to others, as opposed to focussing on decreasing the drug use itself. [...] Structural Perspective: Harm reduction is not merely about the health and well-being of individuals, though that may come first, but also of the family, the community of people whose lives are organized around drug use, and of the broader community.