Harm Reduction
Harm reduction is a proven public health approach that reduces the adverse health, social, and economic outcomes related to a variety of risk-associated activities. HSC sees many patients seeking help related to substance use and clinical teams have been looking for improved ways to support the health and safety of this population.
Harm Reduction Philosophy
Health Sciences Centre is committed to supporting policies, services and actions to reduce harm to individuals who use drugs, trade or sell sex, and are living with sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBI) and are disproportionately disadvantaged due to poverty, racism, discrimination, trauma and other social inequalities. By involving communities, families and individuals with lived experience, Health Sciences Centre will work to promote health equity for individuals who use drugs while respecting their autonomy. This entails implementing the calls to action as outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action.
Utilizing a harm reduction strategy allows for a pragmatic and evidence-informed approach to support and improve individual’s physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being by removing the barriers of access to health services. Our approach is person-centered, respecting patients as individuals that present with their own unique needs and strengths. We aim to reduce the health and social harms associated with substance use by adopting a non-judgmental and non-coercive approach to care.
Naloxone Kits
As part of Health Sciences Centre’s harm reduction strategy, Naloxone take-home kits are now available to patients and their families in the adult emergency department, women’s obstetrical triage, ambulatory care clinic and the PsychHealth Centre.
Naloxone is an easy-to-use, life-saving medication that can reverse overdose or poisoning caused by opioids drugs, including fentanyl, heroin, morphine, hydromorphone, oxycodone, codeine and “down” (a mixture of heroin and fentanyl).
We’re proud to be rolling out this first phase of our harm reduction strategy and hopes that it helps our patients and also our staff who can now offer one more tool to individuals who use drugs.
For information about naloxone please see the links below:
- How to Respond to Opioid Toxicity
- Naloxone Wakes You Up (Video) – Video on what naloxone is and how to use it (6:29 min)
- How to use Naloxone (Video) – Explains how to use naloxone, and the SAVE ME steps (3:21 min)
If you have received a naloxone kit from a health care provider, please complete this survey to help inform our future rollouts and harm reduction initiatives.
Harm Reduction Day
Harm reduction is an important, yet often misunderstood health care approach to reduce the health and social harms associated with addiction and substance use, and other behaviours.
On May 7, 2026, the second annual HSC Harm Reduction Day will be held virtually, providing us with an opportunity to discuss this vital subject and hear from speakers with professional and lived experience with substance use and addiction recovery. Our theme for 2026 is Harm Reduction: Committing to Care. This year’s agenda can be found below. To register for this year’s event, please click here.
| Time | Presenters | Title |
| 8:00 – 8:20 | Val Mondor & Michael Thibert | HSC Welcome & Opening Remarks |
| 8:20 – 9:15 | Hayley Thomas Mount Carmel Clinic | The Mothering Project: Pre-Natal/Post-Natal Harm Reduction Practice |
| 9:15 -10:05 | Heather Ashdown HSC | Reclaiming Patients Who Use Drugs: Medical Care is Protective Care |
| 10:05 – 10:25 | Break – 20 minutes | |
| 10:25 – 1:15 | Toni Tilston-Jones & Team Huddle South | Different Roles, Shared Values: Harm Reduction as Healing and Justice Across Our Organization |
| 11:15 -12:00 | Doug Koop HSC Spiritual Health | Exquisite Empathy: Both a Part, and Apart |
| 12:00 -12:30 | Lunch Break – 30 Minutes | |
| 12:30 – 1:55 | Jonny Mexico & Friends Manitoba Harm Reduction Network | Peer Panel: The Patient Experience |
| 1:55 – 2:15 | Break – 20 minutes | |
| 2:15 – 3:00 | Kim Witges WRHA | Opioid Poisoning Response Training |
| 3:00 – 3:55 | Erin Knight HSC | Harm Reduction |
| 3:55 – 4:00 | Closing Remarks |
Harm Reduction is an evidence-based, client-centred approach which provides individuals with a choice of how they will minimize harms through non-judgemental and non-coercive strategies in order to enhance skills and knowledge to live safer and healthier lives. It seeks to reduce the health and social harms associated with addiction and substance use and other behaviours without necessarily requiring people from abstaining or stopping.
Harm reduction acknowledges that many individuals coping with addiction and problematic substance use may not be in a position to remain abstinent from their substance of choice. The harm reduction approach provides an option for users to engage with peers, medical and social services by meeting them where they are at. This approach allows for a health-oriented response to substance use, and it has been proven that those who engage in harm reduction services are more likely to engage in ongoing treatment as a result of accessing these services.
HSC Harm Reduction Day is organized by the HSC Harm Reduction Group.
To view Harm Reduction Day 2025, please click here.
If you have any questions for organizers, please direct them to the HSC Harm Reduction Group at [email protected].
