If a loved one's drinking is causing harm in your life then HARM LESS may be the solution for you. HARM LESS uses evidence-based, scientifically tested strategies such as Harm Reduction, Motivational Interviewing, and Cognitive Behavioral techniques to help you cope with and work to change your loved one's problematic behaviors.
YOU ARE NOT POWERLESS!!
Please visit HARM LESS - an Al-Anon Alternative for more information.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Saturday, September 18, 2010
What Is Harm Reduction for Alcohol?
Harm reduction strategies are strategies which attempt to reduce the harms associated with a high risk behavior such as driving an automobile, using drugs or alcohol, having sexual relations with a new person, etc. etc. Examples of harm reduction strategies are seatbelts for automobiles, condom distribution, clean needles for drug users, and taking public transportation to and from the bar.
Harm reduction programs stand in contrast to BEHAVIOR ELIMINATION programs such as abstinence-only sex education, prohibition laws for drugs or alcohol, abstinence-only drug and alcohol treatment, and preaching at people to give up driving automobiles. Harm reduction programs work because it is far easier to get many people to make small behavioral changes than it is to get many people to make large behavioral changes.
Programs which attempt to eliminate behaviors which people like always seem to wind up backfiring and causing greater harms than existed before these programs were implemented. Prohibition of alcohol is a case in point. Problems associated with drunkenness before the institution of prohibition pale in comparison to the wide-open gang war exemplified by the St Valentine's Day Massacre and countless deaths which resulted directly from the establishment of the prohibition laws. Prohibition of drugs in our day has lead to the same form of gang warfare. Abstinence only sex education leads to STDs and unwanted pregnancies and abstinence-only drug treatment leads to heroin overdoses by people who have not been warned that trying to go back to their old dose immediately will kill them.
Organizations such as the Harm Reduction Coalition, the International Harm Reduction Association and UKHRA agree that harm reduction programs mean "meeting people where they are at" and not attempting to force them to change in ways which they do not choose for themselves. Harm reduction programs are compassionate, pragmatic, and client-centered. Harm reduction programs neither condemn nor condone high risk behaviors, but recognize them as a reality which will always be with us.
How does one implement harm reduction for alcohol? By giving people information about ways to drink safely, to drink less, or to quit completely of that is the individual's choice. Adding alcohol-free days and drink charting are ways to reduce amounts. Planning safe transportation to bars and drinking with a friend are ways to implement safer drinking. Using cognitive behavioral techniques to change one's thinking is a way to be successful at quitting alcohol--no "Higher Power" needed.
For more ways to reduce harm from alcohol please visit The HAMS Harm Reduction Network - http://hamsnetwork.org
Harm reduction programs stand in contrast to BEHAVIOR ELIMINATION programs such as abstinence-only sex education, prohibition laws for drugs or alcohol, abstinence-only drug and alcohol treatment, and preaching at people to give up driving automobiles. Harm reduction programs work because it is far easier to get many people to make small behavioral changes than it is to get many people to make large behavioral changes.
Programs which attempt to eliminate behaviors which people like always seem to wind up backfiring and causing greater harms than existed before these programs were implemented. Prohibition of alcohol is a case in point. Problems associated with drunkenness before the institution of prohibition pale in comparison to the wide-open gang war exemplified by the St Valentine's Day Massacre and countless deaths which resulted directly from the establishment of the prohibition laws. Prohibition of drugs in our day has lead to the same form of gang warfare. Abstinence only sex education leads to STDs and unwanted pregnancies and abstinence-only drug treatment leads to heroin overdoses by people who have not been warned that trying to go back to their old dose immediately will kill them.
Organizations such as the Harm Reduction Coalition, the International Harm Reduction Association and UKHRA agree that harm reduction programs mean "meeting people where they are at" and not attempting to force them to change in ways which they do not choose for themselves. Harm reduction programs are compassionate, pragmatic, and client-centered. Harm reduction programs neither condemn nor condone high risk behaviors, but recognize them as a reality which will always be with us.
How does one implement harm reduction for alcohol? By giving people information about ways to drink safely, to drink less, or to quit completely of that is the individual's choice. Adding alcohol-free days and drink charting are ways to reduce amounts. Planning safe transportation to bars and drinking with a friend are ways to implement safer drinking. Using cognitive behavioral techniques to change one's thinking is a way to be successful at quitting alcohol--no "Higher Power" needed.
For more ways to reduce harm from alcohol please visit The HAMS Harm Reduction Network - http://hamsnetwork.org
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