We had great discussion at this virtual training on Monday March 17, 2025. Thank you to all who attended! The sessions were recorded and will be on this page once they are edited.
The shifting sands of harm reduction in BC and Canada
“A new ‘fentanyl czar’ in Ottawa, plans for so-called involuntary addiction treatment in Alberta and a scale-back of access to prescribed alternatives to the unregulated drug supply in BC: So far, 2025 has seen Canadian governments further temper their support for evidence-based responses to substance use in Canada. What might these changes mean, especially for harm reduction services? And how can we support policies for people who use drugs rooted in human rights and public health?
In this talk, Dr. M-J Milloy (research scientist at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use) looked at recent developments in the context of the continuing toxic drug supply catastrophe and Vancouver’s history of innovative responses to drug-related harms.
Learn more about Dr. Milloys’ work
Youth Harm Reduction
Interior Health currently has the only health authority based harm reduction team focusing exclusively on youth in BC. During this webinar Lesley Coates and Heather Lee – Regional Harm Reduction Coordinators at Interior Health – shared their challenges and learnings as the team works to shift how youth serving organizations approach substance use.
The Youth Harm Reduction Team developed and discussed a valuable educational resource, an online course, that covers essential information on integrating harm reduction principles, approaches and services into your practice when working with youth.
Learners who complete the online course will:
- Understand what harm reduction is and why it’s an important part of the continuum of care when working with youth.
- Become familiar with youth substance trends and influences.
- Know what harm reduction services are available for youth in B.C.
- Understand how harm reduction work with youth fits with key legislation.
Resources referred to during presentation:
Interior Health Harm Reduction page of resources, including:
Also mentioned in the presentation:
Transforming Substance Use Harm Prevention in Canadian Schools: An Examination of School Administrators’ Experiences and Perspectives. (research paper from Wellstream, the Canadian Centre for Innovation in Child & Youth Mental Health & Substance Use)
This event will support the work of:
• People providing frontline peer and/or health management support services
• People in program development
• People providing community education
Visit our library of on-demand webinars
We greatly appreciate the vision of our government funders and their ongoing commitment to supporting the work of PAN. In particular we gratefully acknowledge the Public Health Agency of Canada – HIV and Hepatitis C Community Action Fund. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Public Health Agency of Canada.