Drug Policy Public Health or Criminal Justice Issue? This is part a free series being held over three Wednesdays, February 13, 20, and 27. Facilitator: Stephen Owen, UBC Vice President, External, Legal and Community Relations

Drug Policy Public Health or Criminal Justice Issue? This is part a free series being held over three Wednesdays, February 13, 20, and 27. Facilitator: Stephen Owen, UBC Vice President, External, Legal and Community Relations

Drug Policy Public Health or Criminal Justice Issue? This is a free series held over three Wednesdays, February 13, 20, and 27. Facilitator: Stephen Owen, UBC Vice President, External, Legal and Community Relations

This one day training will provide an overview of the impact of HIV/AIDS on women in the United States and globally, with a special emphasis on the disproportionate impact on women of color. The facilitators will engage participants in an interactive format that will include a review of the epidemic, treatment issues and prevention strategies, including social and economic barriers to both, and gaps in the research and services. At the conclusion of the training, participants will be able to apply what they learned in their own work settings.

Heroin (and other opioid) overdoses are a common cause of death among users, yet these deaths are often preventable through education, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and when possible, through the administration of naloxone (Narcan). In this workshop, participants will start by learning the essentials of preventing opioid overdose deaths including prevention, recognition, and action. Participants will receive certification as Trained Overdose Responders and become qualified to train heroin or opioid users and colleagues at their own facilities how to prevent an overdose. Please note that this training is geared towards individuals who will be participating in or setting up their own Opiate Overdose Prevention training progam in their agencies. Participants will learn about how to implement a NYSDOH-approved program with support from the Harm Reduction Coalition.

Beginning with an overview of mental disorders, this workshop will focus specifically on clients with co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse. This workshop will emphasize the application of harm reduction principles in identification and intervention along a continuum of risk. The training will also guide service providers in determining effective harm reduction responses that are attentive to the realities of clients' lives, provider skill level, and agency mandate.

The image of the pregnant and parenting drug-using woman has been used for many purposes in our society. Those images actually serve to hurt the women and families that many of us work to support. This can also cause us to carry our own prejudices that can hinder our own best practices and bring about personal stress in our places of employment. This workshop will examine those images, our own prejudices, and we will begin to look at some solutions to avoid buying into common myths and personal beliefs (sometimes from our own histories). By doing this examination, we can better assist women who are struggling with drug use while being pregnant and/or parenting. This workshop will also look at the broader policy implications that focus on supporting pregnant drug-using women instead of criminalizing or shaming their behavior.