Memo by Health Planning to Vancouver/Richmond Health Board regarding the Agenda Topic "Harm Reduction"

A memo written to the Vancouver/Richmond Health Board from the Health Planning committee. It recommends that the Board continue to take up a harm reduction approach in its HIV prevention and substance use interventions. The memo defines harm reduction and the three main strategies of a harm reduction approach to reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Vancouver (prevent transmission through needle exchanges and providing condoms for safer sex; increasing access to testing and care; reducing the number of used and discarded needles in the community). The memo also underscores the importance of developing a community consensus on harm reduction. This is because there are conflicts between harm reduction approaches in health programming and the approaches of police and child welfare services (whose mandates are to intervene if parents / citizens are found with injection drugs).