Please ensure you can commit to attending both days before enrolling for this training.
Date:
DAY ONE – Wednesday 26 March 2025, 1:00PM – 5:00PM
DAY TWO – Thursday 27 March 2025, 9:30AM – 1:30PM
Location: Online
Description: Harm Reduction Masterclass: learn the principles and best practice with peer expert trainers from Harm Reduction Victoria. Learn alongside our living experience trainers about what clients who use drugs really want and need from our services. There are 7 modules delivered over 2 half-days online, with each one designed to give you a basic understanding of each topic. There is an activity that needs to be completed before attending the second day of training. Participants will receive details via email the week before the training.
Details
DAY ONE – Wednesday 26 March 2025, 1:00PM – 5:00PM
Harm Reduction 101
- Understand the history of harm reduction in Victoria & Australia.
- Understand the National Drug Strategy policy of Harm Minimisation and how Harm Reduction fits into this policy.
- Understanding the Substance, Set and Setting principles as a way to understand an individual’s drug experience.
Safer Injecting
- Understand safer injecting practices, including injecting sites; using a tourniquet, and infection & Blood Borne Virus risk.
- Understand the circulatory system and the difference between veins and arteries.
- Understand through “hands-on” demonstration the drug mixing up the process and the transmission risk points during the process.
Drug Overdose & Adverse Effects
- Understand some of the common myths around opioid overdose.
- Be able to recognize the signs of overdose and of actions to take in different circumstances
- Understand when and how to intervene in overdose situations.
Naloxone Administration
- Understand where to obtain naloxone for clients
- Understand the different formulations of naloxone available
- Understand the difference between someone who is ‘on the nod’ or overdosing and the appropriate time to administer naloxone.
DAY TWO – Thursday 27 March 2025, 9:30AM – 1:30PM
Introduction to Pharmacotherapy
- Be aware of the pharmacotherapy options available to PWUD in Victoria.
- Understand how to access pharmacotherapy in Victoria.
- Be aware of Victoria’s “broken system”
Working Effectively with people who use drugs
- Understand barriers to effectively working with people who use drugs (PWUD), in particular, people who inject drugs (PWID)
- Understand and challenge the ‘gateway drug’ theory.
- Understand common myths about PWID, the effects of criminalisation, and the stigma on the health of PWUD
Stigma & Discrimination
- Understand how stigma and discrimination act as a barrier in healthcare settings.
- Understand how frameworks of morality and social discourse frame our understanding of drug use.
- Understand how we can all contribute to eliminating stigma and discrimination in ourselves and our services
Eligibility Criteria
This training has been funded for workers employed under the AOD Traineeship Program.
Who is not eligible?
Anyone not employed under the AOD Traineeship Program, workers from other community sectors such as family violence, homelessness, mental health, non-supervisors and AOD workers outside of Victoria.
Terms & Conditions
Please ensure you have clearance from your line manager to attend. If you cannot attend, cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waitlist.