Bringing Together Harm Reduction Supporters…

Members of the Healthy Futures Lab took part in a meeting of the Midlands Harm Reduction Collective on September 20, 2024 at the beautiful Ndoki Lodge at the Riverbanks Zoo. This event—sponsored by the Integrated Care for Recovery (I-CaRe) Center, where Dr. Harrison is the Director—aimed to bring together community partners to talk about ways to scale-up Harm Reduction services in the Midlands region of South Carolina. We brainstormed with a wide range of partners—from healthcare and mental health providers to local fire departments — to think about current needs to prevent overdose and help support the health and wellbeing of people who use drugs. Sarah Miller (PhD student in the Healthy Futures Lab) gave an amazing presentation on a recent study she led that is focused on Peer Support Specialists in South Carolina—a incredible community of people with personal, lived experience in recovery who work to meet the needs of people with substance use disorder (SUD).