Toward the Heart is the main website for BCCDC's Harm Reduction Services Program that provides harm reduction and overdose prevention information and resources for a diverse audience. It features support for registered harm reduction and Take Home Naloxone distribution sites, including training materials and other educational tools. It also includes topic sections on reducing harm, naloxone programs, overdose prevention and response, and working together.

This page is intended to provide clinical resources for health professionals on harm reduction and overdose prevention and response.

This web page collates a variety of resources by topic. Due to the unpredictable and unregulated drug supply, information can change and many of our resources are currently under review. We recommend checking this page regularly. If you can't find what you are looking for, or if you have questions about any of our resources, please email harmreduction@bccdc.ca.

Harm reduction

• What is harm reduction?
  
• BCCDC and PHO Position Statement: Observed Consumption Services
• History of harm reduction supply program in B.C.
• Clinical information sheets:
• Xylazine
  
• Skin infections
  
• Toxic Leukoencephalopathy
• Etizolam in BC’s illicit drug market
  
• Levamisole
• Nitazene
  
• Best practices:
  
• Safe needle disposal
• Needle distribution
  
• Community needle stick injuries
  
• Overdose prevention at meetings and events
  
• Best practice recommendations for Canadian harm reduction programs
  
• Harm Reduction Fundamentals for Service Providers
• Hormone Injection Supplies Toolkit 
  

Overdose prevention & response

• Toxic drug and health alerts
  
• Guiding Principles
  
• Recommended Practices 
  
• BCCDC Toolkit: Responding to opioid overdose for BC service providers
• Communicable Disease Prevention: Responding to Drug Poisoning at Overdose Prevention Services and Supervised Consumption Sites 
  
• OD Prevention Services Guide
  
• Provincial Episodic Overdose Prevention Service (eOPS) Protocol
  
• eOPS Quick Reference Guide
  
• Youth eOPS Quick Reference Guide
  
• Pregnant & Parenting eOPS Quick Reference Guide
  
• Housing & Emergency Shelter eOPS Quick Reference Guide
  
• Prolonged Sedation
• Responding to Opioid Poisoning with Prolonged Sedation 
• Naloxone info:
  
• DST
  
• Naloxone pre-loading
  
• Naloxone and temperature
  
• Should you give naloxone?
• BCCDC illegal drug overdose events
• BCCDC harm reduction reports
• BCCSU drug checking reports

Safer supply

• CATIE: Safe Supply Concept Document
  
• MoH and MMHA: Access to Prescribed Safer Supply in British Columbia: Policy Direction
• Health Canada: Safer Supply
• Evidence Summary: Dextroamphetamine Sulfate for the Treatment of Stimulant Use Disorder
• CADTH: iOAT for Patients with Opioid Dependence: A Review of Clinical and Cost- Effectiveness
  
• National Safer Supply Community of Practice
  

Health professional regulations and resources

• Nurses:
• Joint Position Statement published by the CNA, CANAC, and HRNA on Harm Reduction and Substance Use
  
• HRNA Position Statement: Safer Injecting
• HRNA position statement: harm reduction education in baccalaureate nursing programs
  
• Physicians:
• Doctors of BC Policy Statement: illicit drugs toxicity/overdose crisis
• Pharmacists:
• College of Pharmacists of BC Professional practice policy: Opioid Agonist Therapy (OAT)
• College of Pharmacists of BC Professional practice policy: Injectable OAT (iOAT)

Clinical care guidelines

• BCCSU clinical care guidance:
• Risk mitigation in the context of dual public heath emergencies
• Guideline for the clinical management of opioid use disorder
• Guidance for Injectable Opioid Agonist Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder
• Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder During Pregnancy Guideline Supplement
• Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder for Youth Guideline Supplement
• Care Guidance on Alcohol Use Disorder

Toxic drug supply & overdose public health emergency

• Public health emergency declaration
• M488 ministerial order
• PHO Order: RN/RPN Public Health Pharmacotherapy
• Office of PHO: Stopping the Harm: Decriminalization of people who use drugs

Stigma & substance use

• Beyond Stigma: Pain and Opioid Use
  
• Language and substance use stigma:
• Toward the Heart Language Matters
• Peer2Peer Compassionate Engagement modules
• EQUIP toolkit: Promoting Healthy Equity- Harm Reduction
• Northern Health Authority: Stop Stigma, Save Lives
• Resisting Stigma on Substance Use and the Downtown Eastside: VCH e-learning course
  

Engagement with people with lived/living experience

• Peer Engagement Principles and Best Practices
• Peer Payment Standards for Short-term Engagements
  
• Paying Peers in Community Based Work
  
• Best practice manual for supporting peers/experiential workers in overdose response settings
• Peer Engagement and Evaluation Project (PEEP) final report
• History of Peer Engagement in the BCCDC Harm Reduction Program

Youth

• Guidelines for Providing Harm Reduction Services to Youth in BC
  
• An Update on Youth Substance Use Services in BC
• Time to Listen: Youth Voices on Substance Use
• Detained: Rights of children & youth under the Mental Health Act
  

Indigenous harm reduction

• Indigenous harm reduction= reducing the harms of colonialism policy brief
• Indigenous-centred harm reduction and hepatitis C programs
• Native Youth Sexual Health Network: Indigenizing harm reduction

Organizational resources

• Bevel Up: Harm reduction curriculum
• EQUIP: Organizational readiness tools
• CISUR Harm Reduction Implementation Framework
• Implementing the Victoria SAFER initiative
  
• Infrastructure for Harm Reduction in Residential and Hotel Settings
• BCCSU Supervised consumption services: operational guide
• VCH Housing Overdose Prevention Manual HOPS
  
• Addressing Stigma: Towards a More Inclusive Healthcare System

Research

• BCCDC harm reduction services research projects