The Department of Homeless Services is undertaking a new, first-of-its-kind, two-year harm-reduction initiative in hopes of saving lives from drug overdoses, amNewYork Metro has exclusively learned.
Whether deservedly, or undeservedly, DHS has grown a reputation among those experiencing homelessness as being a somewhat callous and cold city agency. However, the department is looking to shift that mindset dramatically thanks to a nation first that is promised to bring a cultural reset along with it, altering how they treat their clients.
While DHS says they still strongly discourage drug use and forbid narcotics inside of their shelters, Dr. Laraque says that she understands that people living with homelessness have experienced trauma and are likely to dull the pain using drugs. It is with this in mind that she underscores DHS is looking to revamp its mindset and expand upon its harm reduction practices through this two-year initiative launching now.
“So, the idea of harm reduction is to use other ways to prevent the negative impact of opioids,” Dr. Laraque explained. “We have a lot of rules and we can be a little bit old-fashioned, you know, drugs are bad for you. But people use drugs anyway. So, how do we help? It’s not always helpful to say just stop, or it’s bad, or it’s negative, right? That doesn’t help anyone.
DHS was granted funding for this new initiative in 2022 by the city and NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports, through which they will be linking individuals to care, providing medications for addiction treatment and ongoing care coordination, as well as hiring a data analyst to use DHS data to plan programs, monitor and report on outcomes.
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