TUC Offers Harm Reduction Program
The TUC Harm Reduction program has partnered with Touro Student Run-Free Clinic at the Norman C. King South Vallejo Community Center. Supported by Drug Safe Solano, this program is offered every Thursday and brings together a marginalized part of the community with students of Touro University California - future healthcare providers.
By Christina Kinnevey, MD, Assistant Professor and Co-Chair of Drug Safe Solano Opioid Coalition and College of Osteopathic Medicine Student Doctors Svitlana Eckmann and Colburn Yu
The opioid/substance use epidemic claims the life of one person approximately every five minutes in the United States. That means by the time you are done reading this newspaper, another person will likely have died from overdose. Combined with the COVID-19 pandemic mortality, the opioid epidemic drove the life expectancy in the U.S. to its lowest point in 25 years. Solano County is not sheltered from this tragedy, with certain areas of the County seeing up to four times the overdose rates of the state in 2021. These are our neighbors, our colleagues, our family, our friends. Clearly, something needs to be done in our community.
Until now, Solano County did not have a Harm Reduction program to provide those with substance use disorders (SUD) with resources and education to reduce adverse outcomes and the spread of transmissible infectious diseases.
Harm Reduction programs aim to reduce the harm associated with drug use and addiction, rather than focusing solely on abstinence. These programs provide clean syringes, distribute naloxone, provide education on treatment services and help safely dispose of used syringes. Evidence from program evaluations during the AIDs epidemic of the 1980’s show that harm reduction programs reduce the spread of communicable diseases such as Hepatitis C and HIV, prevent other health complications like cellulitis and overall reduce morbidity and mortality.
However, Harm Reduction programs are not a panacea, and they cannot address the root causes of SUD. It is important to take a proactive approach to combating the opioid epidemic by addressing issues such as the overprescription of opioids, lack of access to mental health services, and social determinants of health, including poverty and unemployment.
For this reason, the Harm Reduction program has partnered with Touro Student Run-Free Clinic at the Norman C. King South Vallejo Community Center. Supported by Drug Safe Solano, this program is offered every Thursday and brings together a marginalized part of the community with students of Touro University California - future healthcare providers.
These students educate patients with SUD about safer ways to use substances and provide instructions for potentially life saving interventions, like narcan, while simultaneously learning how to better manage patients with SUD.