By: Katie A. McCormick, MSW, Doctoral Candidate & Dr. Kasey R. Claborn, Steve Hicks Fellow in Addiction and Recovery Services and Assistant Professor, Steve Hicks School of Social Work, University of Texas at Austin
A multitude of factors have contributed to the severity of the opioid overdose epidemic, such as opioid supply and demand, economic conditions, treatment accessibility, interpersonal stigma, and individual-level factors consistent with the bio-psycho-social model.
Numerous interventions have been implemented to address the harms of the epidemic, such as medication treatments and prescription drug monitoring programs. While these have been imperative, they fall short of reaching groups that do not engage in the traditional healthcare system due to a myriad of reasons, including the lack of accessibility and availability of services.
Harm reduction is a transformative approach that reduces drug-related harm by centering respect, individual autonomy, and pragmatism and promoting strategies that do not require abstinence (SAMHSA, 2023). Because harm reduction approaches facilitate more comprehensive service delivery, national epidemic response efforts have increasingly supported the approach.
Even though there is abundant empirical evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of harm reduction interventions, little is known about the range of harm reduction interventions that have been implemented to address the opioid epidemic in the U.S.
