HARM REDUCTION STRATEGIES AT SYMPOSIUM

NANAIMO - Sessions at Monday's harm reduction symposium in Nanaimo are
selling out quickly.

NARSF Programs (Nanaimo and Area Resource Services for Families) in
partnership with the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA), is
holding the symposium to exchange ideas and strategies on harm
reduction.

Harm reduction is a sometimes controversial pragmatic approach to
keeping people safe and reducing the rate of death, disease and injury
associated with higher risk behaviours.

While harm reduction is most often linked to drug use, it is a
universal public health approach that includes activities such as
wearing a seat-belt while driving, a helmet while cycling or a condom
when having sex.

The symposium will, among other things, be a chance exchange ideas and
strategies that incorporate harm reduction principles and practices
into direct services, public policy and individual lives.

It will also promote dialogue and encourage culturally safe harm
reduction approaches with Aboriginal people.

Key note speaker Benedickt Fischer from the BC Centre of Addiction
Research will discuss his recently study on crack cocaine.

Registration information is available at: http://narsf.proreg.ca.