This webinar, presented by the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario Mental Health and Substance Use Program, focuses on background information on and implementation of safer supply.
Harm reduction is a foundational component of nursing practice. Harm reduction is a philosophy that has a set of core principles and values, such as justice, dignity, compassion and autonomy — that shape how we work. It involves policies, programmes and practices that aim primarily to reduce the adverse health, social and economic consequences of the use of substances without necessarily reducing consumption.
Prescribed safer supply is a harm reduction approach that involves providing pharmaceutical grade drugs of known quantity and quality to people with opioid use disorder who are at high risk of overdose and other harms. This approach has become highly politicized with a lot of misinformation circulating in the media, despite proven positive impacts for people.