The Significance of Harm Reduction as a Social and Health Care Intervention for Injecting Drug Users: An Exploratory Study of a Needle Exchange Program in Fresno, California

• Published in: Social work in public health Vol. 31; no. 5; pp. 398 - 407
• Main Authors: Clarke, Kris, Harris, Debra, Zweifler, John A., Lasher, Marc, Mortimer, Roger B., Hughes, Susan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Routledge 01-08-2016; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: abscess; Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; Addictions; Adult; AIDS; Biomedicine; Blood diseases; California; Collaboration; Drug abuse; Female; Harm Reduction; Health; Health administration; Health problems; Health Promotion; Health services utilization; Hepatitis C - prevention & control; HIV Infections - prevention & control; Humans; Infection Control; injecting drug users; Intervention; Male; Medical personnel; Middle Aged; Needle exchange programs; Policy Making; Risk; social determinants of health; Substance Abuse, Intravenous; United States; United States > US; California; needle-exchange programs; social determinants of health; injecting drug users; abscess; harm reduction
• ISSN: 1937-1918; 1937-190X
• DOI: 10.1080/19371918.2015.1137522

Infectious disease remains a significant social and health concern in the United States. Preventing more people from contracting HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis C (HCV), requires a complex understanding of the interconnection between the biomedical and social dimensions of infectious disease. Opiate addiction in the US has skyrocketed in recent years. Preventing more cases of HIV/AIDS and HCV will require dealing with the social determinants of health. Needle exchange programs (NEPs) are based on a harm reduction approach that seeks to minimize the risk of infection and damage to the user and community. This article presents an exploratory small-scale quantitative study of the injection drug using habits of a group of injection drug users (IDUs) at a needle exchange program in Fresno, California. Respondents reported significant decreases in high risk IDU behaviors, including sharing of needles and to a lesser extent re-using of needles. They also reported frequent use of clean paraphernalia. Greater collaboration between social and health outreach professionals at NEPs could provide important frontline assistance to people excluded from mainstream office-based services and enhance efforts to reduce HIV/AIDS or HCV infection.