Neil McKeganey thoughtfully shares his
ambivalence about safe injecting centers in this video. talks about them as places of despair that, in the existing context, may be better than not creating them. He goes on to talk about what a woefully inadequate response they are and that they do not call for the rest of us to give ourselves a pat on the back.
I like his response. His ambivalence is indicative of the grim reality. Harm reduction services alone are woefully inadequate, yet they may often be better than nothing. If we are truly interested in helping this population than we must recognize that we have a responsibility to do more. Harm reduction should be a link in a continuum rather than a stand alone intervention. Harm reduction providers have a responsibility to make more of an effort to link clients to recovery based services.
ReplyDelete