Session: The Effective Advocate: A Policy-Maker’s Perspective with River Chandler
Topics Covered:
- Importance of advocating and involving community in policy-making in government
- Inclusion practices for involving community, particularly drug-users
Key Learnings: River discussed advocacy in regard to harm reduction “inside” and “outside.” “Outside” groups and campaigns are essential to move policy-makers to make changes that members want to see. As River mentioned, campaigns for Insite helped show politicians that it was hazardous not to endorse it. “Inside” the provincial government, evidence based policy making and to involving drug-users in policy and program development are important practices. Nothing About Us, Without Us is an evidence-based initiative to increase engagement of drug-users in policy and the BC Centre for Disease Control has an evidence-based and policy backed
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In order to address this health issue, more proactive, evidenced-based, and community supported policies and initiatives are necessary. The more people and organizations that work together, the more potential for success.
Takeaways:
My two main takeaways:
- Ministry Service Plan and Minister’s Mandate Letter: When it comes to policy proposals, using the words of the government or group/organization who is in power is valuable to gain support and make a difference. On a provincial level, using a ministry’s service plan and minister’s mandate letter is appropriate. I was able to put this advice to practice when doing policy pitches with my group at the end of the week.
- Tipping point: As opioid overdoses and open drug use increased, policy passing quickened. This signifies a tipping point. If an issue is not at a tipping point yet, we can push it forward by determining what the government has said about it publicly and bring forward strong and appropriate evidence and aligning it with our
Although these clients will still be abusing illegal substances, Sheon (2004) indicated that any reduction of harm is a step in the right direction, and the amount of success is measured by the client’s quality of life and well-being (as cited in Brown et al., 2005). “Harm reduction is about being respectful in somebody else’s world” (Georgina Perry, Service manager and co-author, England as cited in Cusick et al., 2010). By not respecting somebody else’s choices, the clients feel they must lie about their unhealthy lifestyles, which prevents the clients from getting assistance because they were trying to protect themselves from the real situation (Georgina Perry, Service manager and co-author, England as cited in Cusick et al., 2010). A way to reduce the harm from illegal substance abuse is clean needle exchange, and teaching clients how to properly inject themselves (Brown et al., 2005). The needle exchange is a program where clients exchange their used needles for clean ones, which helps reduce the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS (Brown et al., 2005). With continuation of these programs the harm from abusing illegal substances is reduced and the spread of life threatening diseases, such as HIV,
The content of this paper is an interview with Laura Crain from the McHenry County Substance Abuse Coalition. In the paper I touch on the history of the Coalition and how its evolved throughout the years. The coalition has a lot of involvement with the community in various counties. The work on a larger scheme rather than on a one to one basis. This interview covered the mission and goals set for the Coalition. Laura discussed with me the influences internal as well as external that affect the Coalition. Another thing we discussed was the struggles that come along with running an organization like this. I also touched on my personal experience and my thoughts regarding my internship.
Mike Rauser’s article, “War on Christmas” product of spoiled attitudes, provides an introduction to help explain the contents learned in this class. His article has viewpoints that can be demonstrated by the four nodes of religion inquiry, and Ninian Smart’s six dimension of religion. His article acts as a springboard to show our understanding of the course materials.
It is suggested that since Insite was created, it has been sending the wrong message to the youth of Vancouver stating that injection drug use is acceptable and has support. This approach is unlikely and naïve. There is evidence shown that the total number of drug users in cities with SIS’s has decreased. The introduction of SISs is being understood as that drug use is right. Rather than it is limited, self-contained, and is a
There was a great push for a non-judgmental approach that would ‘reduce physical, social and psychological risks to individuals who use drugs and to society as a whole’ (McCann & Temenos, 2015, p. 217). Never the less, this was a highly contested set of policy formulation across all levels of governance.
There are many differing viewpoints in the United States when dealing with drug policy. Within the political arena, drug policy is a platform that many politicians base their entire campaigns upon, thus showing its importance to our society in general. Some of these modes within which drug policy is studied are in terms of harm reduction, and supply reduction. When studying the harmful effects of drugs, we must first to attempt to determine if drug abuse harms on an individual level of if it is a major cause of many societal problems that we face today. In drawing a preliminary conclusion to this question we are then able to outline the avenues of approach in dealing
The ethical implications of the Canadian government funding and supporting these projects, considering current drug laws and policies, are questioned by some. People believe that the government should not participate in enabling drug use (Globe & Mail, (2011) and that zero tolerance approaches should be taken. In opposition to zero tollerance attitudes some
Kill them; kill them all sounds harsh doesn’t it. But if you think about it, which are the way most murders, rapist, and serial killers fell about us. So why not return the favors kill them, kill them all. Like I said this is how they feel about us (criminals). You hear about it in the daily news reasons behind the crimes that criminals comment. They say it’s because of their childhood or they were just born that way (evil). And we as society accept that reasoning and say, well we need to help these criminals.
Modern society is dealing with a health crisis that has been on the rise for years. Ongoing
The city of Vancouver has been known to have a drug issue, more specifically in the downtown eastside area, which holds one of the most unwealtiest and oldest neighbourhoods in Canada. While British Columbia has an estimate of 20,000 injection drug users who are pronounced to be in poverty, have a mental illness, and be homeless (Jozaghi, & Andresen, 2013: 1). In efforts to reduce this drug problem, the city developed a plan using a four-pillar approach that focuses on enforcement, harm reduction, treatment, and prevention (Schaefer & Haaland, 2014: 242). Schaefer & Haaland (2014: 242) explain each portion of this plan: the enforcement component consists of a trail court which varies out the options for drug treatment, the police aiming for
Since 1980, the United States has taken on 10-year plans that outline certain key national health objectives set to be accomplished during a 10-year timeframe (Shi & Singh, 2015). These initiatives are founded on medical care with prevention services, health promotion, education, community health care, and increased access to integrated services. The initiative, Healthy People 2010: Healthy People in Healthy Communities, launched in 2000. The initiative emphasizes the role of community partners such as
After hearing a noise from down the hallway, Annie’s parents realize that she has yet to return to dinner. Along with their affluent guests, they start searching for the missing child. While looking through the numerous rooms of the castle, both Father and Mother have a thought, though they hope it is not true, that Annie went into the forbidden room. As the search party approaches the room, the guests are warned not to set foot in it because of its ghostly past. As Annie’s father places his hand on the doorknob, which had been warmed by the touch of Annie’s hand, he enters the room, leaving her mother out in the hallway. As he walks through the room, he notices something different; something that had not been there before. Perched on the small
In public health, as in many fields there are a set of conundrums that practitioners, leaders and law makers have to address in order to provide the most appropriate service to their populations. One of these conundrums is the battle between what is good for the community vs. what is good for the individual. This topic will be broken up to the community vs. the individual, and discussed based on research done by Kass et al, and Oriola, and will be concluded by presenting possible solutions.
In order to first start a policy process, the problem for which a policy is to be created must be identified and the policy holding a solution to the problem. Researchers and stakeholders will investigate the problem to identify if the policy will reach the policy making agenda. Policies must be to improve society’s health and wellbeing. In the United States (U.S.) public health related issues that require a formulation of a new policy and come from local, state, or federal legislations which ruling govern the provision of health care services and regulations. In this
Drugs and alcohol is a major social issue (J. David Hawkins, Richard F. Catalano, and Janet Y. Miller, 1992). It is not something that can be solved by the law (Lee P. Brown, 2008). Throughout history, many attempts have been made to try and legalize and control alcohol and drug addiction but has failed.