The United States is in the midst of an overdose crisis. While deaths from drug overdoses are sadly nothing new, the scale of the crisis over the past 20 years has had a dramatic impact on systems of care.
Implementing evidence-based and promising strategies can reduce overdose and other drug-related harms and create effective systems of care, particularly for communities with intersecting marginalized identities, including criminal justice-involved populations and communities of color. To be effective, these strategies must simultaneously support people who use drugs (PWUD) and people with substance use disorder (PWSUD) and the communities in which they live.
Harm reduction practices are grounded in the principle of “meeting people where they are, but not leaving them there,” and provide nonjudgmental services and supports to PWUD. Strongly supported by evidence, the wide range of harm reduction practices decrease risks of overdose, overdose death, infectious disease transmission and other substance use-related harms. For decades, harm reduction and overdose prevention organizations have provided life-saving essential services to PWUD, PWSUD and their communities. These approaches continue to be important in the midst of today’s overdose crisis.
30+
The National Council has created more than 30 harm reduction/overdose prevention resources.
575,000
These resources have been viewed or downloaded over 575,000 times.
National Council’s Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention Work
The National Council is committed to supporting overdose prevention and harm reduction practices and organizations — through funding, technical assistance, networking opportunities, sharing lessons learned from the field and more.
To respond to the overdose crisis with an evidence-based, trauma-informed approach, we work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other partners to develop and fund multi-pronged resources and projects supporting a wide range of stakeholders and organizations.
About the Hub
The National Council works collaboratively with multidisciplinary stakeholders to continually develop national resources to increase the adoption of evidence-based practices and strategies to reduce the risk of overdose and harm for PWUD and PWSUD.
Resources are listed in the menu, organized by the intended audience.
For more information contact Caroline Davidson: CarolineD@TheNationalCouncil.org.