Nurses: Harm Reduction Isn't An Easy Concept To Define

A group of fourth year nursing students at UBCO hope they can succeed
in explaining the concept of harm reduction to skeptical downtown
business people where the City of Kelowna and John Howard Society failed.

"We're trying to inform the business community about what harm
reduction actually is," said Lisa Wensink, speakign about the project
the four students have undertaken as a graduation requirement.

"With the whole St. Paul supportive housing thing and the lawsuit,
there has been a whole lot of negative publicity around harm
reduction. We want to demystify it and give accurate information
about what it really is."

During the run-up to the decision about where to locate the
supportive facility--which will house people recovering from
addictions but not necessarily kick them out if they suffer a
relapse--the city tried to explain the concept to dozens of people
opposed to it.

But it must have fallen on deaf ears, as did a similar effort by the
John Howard Society, the group chosen to oversee construction and
operation of the 30-bed facility.

A group of business owners in the area launched a lawsuit earlier
this month trying to block construction of the project.

"Perhaps coming from us it will have a different meaning although
we're not going to measure our success in terms of having the whole
community embrace it. We don't expect people to say, 'Here's four
nursing students, we love nurses so we'll change our minds,'" said Wensink.

Wensink said she and her partners Diana Gort-Ouimet, Ton Gremmen and
Marja Mackenzie have already approached the Capital News about
distributing a pamphlet explaining harm reduction and will be hosting
a table at the next Downtown After Five meeting. As well, the
Downtown Kelowna Association will send out the pamphlet through its newsletter.

However, a similar request to the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce was turned down.

"They weren't interested," said Wensink.

For her part, she believes the negative publicity the subject has
generated could make it worse than it already is.

"I think it could drive away customers but it's up to the public how
they interpret it," Wensink said. "Negativity does tend to push people away."

So much so that Wensink says she and her partners even considered
whether or not to use the term harm reduction when talking about it.

"People tend to have a very emotional reaction to the subject," she says.

Their view is that harm reduction embraces a whole range of things
from seat belts to smoke detectors as well as the methadone program
and so-called wet housing.

"Most people hear harm reduction and they think of safe injection
sites and a bunch of dirty needles lying in the street. That's not
what this is about."

Wenkins says so far the group hasn't encountered active resistance to
their message but they're under no illusions.

"It's not a nice subject," she acknowledged. "But at least people
recognize we do have an addiction issue in Kelowna and it's not just
affecting people on the street."

For more information on the project or to get copies of their
pamphlet, contact Wensink at 868-0750.