Katherine Dunham is a harm reductionist and researcher at the People, Place and Health Collective at the Brown University School of Public Health.
In January 2022, Rhode Island joined the national opioid settlement which provided over $90 million for state and local efforts to address the overdose crisis. It’s imperative that these funds be used to comprehensively and equitably support the well-being of harm reduction staff — the front-line workers who will be carrying out many of those lifesaving efforts.
Harm reduction is a set of strategies that addresses the negative outcomes associated with drug use. Notably, research has found that those working in the field — harm reduction workers — face common stressors in their roles such as overextension, grief and feelings of burnout, all of which take a toll on staff members’ mental health and all of which are exacerbated by the growing overdose crisis.
Additionally, studies out of Philadelphia and Massachusetts found that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, harm reduction organizations were experiencing staff shortages, staff members were unable to work remotely, and staff were experiencing significant feelings of isolation. Working in harm reduction myself during this time, I felt these feelings of loss, exhaustion and tension firsthand, and saw that organizations often didn’t have the resources to sufficiently address them.