o If a person has an eating disorder, can they recognize when it is having a serious effect on their body and know when to get help? • Supporting the peer in obtaining sterile, new equipment to decrease the risk of serious harm and spreading disease. • Understanding that people engage in less common self-harming behaviors. • Recognizing the strength people display by choosing to engage in harm reduction and not viewing it as a step on the path to complete abstinence unless that is their stated goal. For many people the idea of supporting someone in obtaining equipment that will be used for self-harming behavior or to continue using a substance, can feel jarring, counterintuitive, and unethical. The role of a certified peer specialist is to support people on their individual path to recovery that can encompass harm reduction, abstinence, or both over a period of time. Certified peer specialists must have a comprehensive understanding of their own beliefs and negotiating boundaries with their peer as well as understanding their employer’s policies surrounding supporting someone engaging in harm reduction. Advocating for implementation of harm reduction policies Not all agencies recognize harm reduction as a viable path to recovery. For many employers these types of policies can present a unique and challenging shift in the approach they have used for many years. As the support for multiple pathways to recovery is a core tenet of being a certified peer specialist, it is critical that they advocate for the recognition of harm reduction as a valid recovery choice while receiving services of any kind through their agency. Certified peer specialists are uniquely positioned, as agents of change, to educate and advocate for the implementation of harm reduction policies at their place of employment. VIDEO: “What is Harm Reduction?” – National Institute on Drug Abuse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikmKxgCTXFA
VIDEO: “Harm Reduction 101” – HRAC Denver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7epsLmN604
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