Available courses
If you want to sign up for our course please email Dorota Król at info@harmreduction.eu or click here to register on our e-learning platform.
This three-week online course gives participants the opportunity to analyse key aspects of drug-related deaths provision upon release from prison and other custodial settings, learn how to prevent an opiate overdose and explains what to do in the case of witnessing an opiate overdose.
The immediate time after release (“my first 48 hours out”) is a critical time for action, when the cooperation between prisons, healthcare providers and NGOs is key in ensuring continuity of care and where targeted interventions can save lives from overdose and build a path towards engagement into further treatment and rehabilitation for people who use drugs.
These longer online course provide hands-on learning spaced over time. By the end of the course, participants will also have an understanding of the opiate overdose reversal medication naloxone, where to obtain a kit and how to utilise it in the case of an overdose.
The content of the course was adopted from previously developed guidelines, manuals and handbooks and is based on international best practices. The curriculum includes three modules with descriptions of content to learn, quizzes and tips for practical exercises.
This course is to support prison doctors, prison health care workers, NGOs, people who come into contact with people who use drugs, GPs, nurses, teachers, police, housing workers and social workers and mental health workers.
Specifically, seek to:
- increase the availability of naloxone to people likely to witness an overdose when they are released from prison
- increase awareness of the identification of the signs and symptoms of an overdose and equip people with the skills to respond effectively.
In order to achieve these outcomes, this course will:
- inform prisoner healthcare policymakers of the benefits of naloxone-on-re-lease from prison
- advise policymakers of the practical steps necessary to introduce naloxone-on-release
- inform programme managers of the benefits of naloxone-on-release and provide advice on implementation.
Before starting the course please read the manual
This course has been designed to be a complete tool to provide staff in low-threshold settings the knowledge, skills and techniques needed for testing people who use drugs for HIV and HCV and linking them to needed care.
It was developed within the EU-funded programme, Joint Action on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Tuberculosis among People Who Inject Drugs in Europe (HA-REACT).
Main topics:
- Basic information about HIV, HCV, and TB
- What types of HIV and HCV tests exists and how they work
- The standards of test counselling
- Understand philosophy of harm reduction
- Address gender issues within existing services and/or develop gender-specific services
- Integrated approaches in realtion to substance use and HIV/HCV testing
- What can be done to support linkage
- How to choose the right tools and uderstand the meaning of quality
- Standards for HIV and HCV testing in prison settings
Целью курса является расширение знаний о заместительной терапии, осуществляемой в пенитенциарных учреждениях. Участники имеют возможность ознакомиться с основными целями заместительной терапии и преимуществами, получаемыми в результате ее использования. Описаны наиболее важные методы лечения и этические основы заместительной терапии в пенитенциарной системе.
Курс адресован врачам, работающим в пенитенциарных учреждениях, контрактным врачам, тюремному персоналу, государственному управлению, неправительственным организациям и другим учреждениям, занимающимся заботой о наркоманах, которые охвачены заместительной терапией.
Тематический охват курса:
- Основные цели заместительной терапии.
- Преимущества заместительной терапии.
- Схемы заместительной терапии.
- Угрозы и ограничения заместительной терапии.
- Наиболее часто используемые препараты в заместительной терапии.
- Внедрение заместительной терапии в тюрьмах.
- Информация для пациентов в заместительной терапии.
- Продолжение лечения после начала или прекращения тюремного заключения.
- Связывание заместительной терапии с лечением; других инфекций.
- Медицинская этика заместительной терапии в тюрьме.
Celem kursu jest poszerzenie wiedzy na temat terapii substytucyjnej realizowanej w jednostkach penitencjarnych. Uczestnicy mają okazję zapoznać się z głównymi celami terapii substytucyjnej oraz korzyściami, jakie wynikają z jej stosowania. Opisane zostały najważniejsze metody leczenia i etyczne podstawy leczenia substytucyjnego w jednostce penitencjarnej.
Kurs kierujemy do lekarzy pracujących w jednostkach penitencjarnych, lekarzy kontraktowych, pracowników więziennej służby zdrowia, administracji, organizacji pozarządowych i innych instytucji zajmujących się sprawowaniem opieki nad osobami uzależnionymi od opiatów, objętymi leczeniem substytucyjnym.
Zakres tematyczny kursu:
- Główne cele leczenia substytucyjnego.
- Korzyści wynikające z leczenia substytucyjnego.
- Schematy leczenia substytucyjnego.
- Zagrożenia i ograniczenia terapii substytucyjnej.
- Najczęściej stosowane leki w terapii substytucyjnej.
- Wdrożenie leczenia substytucyjnego w zakładach karnych.
- Informacje dla pacjenta w leczeniu substytucyjnym.
- Kontynuacja leczenia po rozpoczęciu lub zakończeniu kary więzienia.
- Powiązanie terapii substytucyjnej z leczeniem infekcji krwiopochodnych i innych.
- Etyka medyczna leczenia substytucyjnego w zakładzie karnym.
Before starting the course please read the manual on this page
The main goal of the course is to broaden knowledge about substitution therapy in such specific conditions as penitentiary units. Participants have the opportunity to become acquainted with the main goals of substitution therapy and the benefits that prisons achieve by applying it. In addition, the most important methods of this type of treatment and its ethical basis have been described.
The content on this course is based on the expertise of scientists and medical doctors/psychiatrists/healthcare professionals working in the field of substitution treatment in prisons.
This course is to support prison doctors, contracted doctors, prison health care workers, prison administration, NGOs and others in delivering or supporting substitution treatment to opioid dependent prisoners.
Subjects of the course
- The main goals of substitution treatment.
- Benefits of substitution treatment.
- Schemes of substitution treatment.
- Threats and limitations of substitution therapy.
- The most commonly used drugs in substitution therapy.
- Implementation of substitution treatment in prisons.
- Information for patients in substitution treatment.
- Continuation of treatment after commencement or termination of prison sentence.
- Linking substitution therapy to treatment of blood-borne and other infections.
- Medical ethics of substitution treatment in a prison.
This course aims to provide information and practical guidance to support the implementation of NSP in prisons and other closed settings. The course presents models of PNSP that have been tried and evaluated around the world, and provides recommendations and practical advice on advocating, starting, scaling up and monitoring PNSP.
The intended audience for this course includes prison governors, administrators and staff, health-care managers and programme coordinators at all levels across all types of custodial institutions, prison administrations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and trade union officials.
Subjects of the course:
- The scientific evidence on the effectiveness of PNSP.
- A legal framework for PNSP.
- Models of needle and syringe programmes in prison.
- Elements of an effective programme.
- Document HIV, hepatits, injecting drug use and risk behaviours among prisoners.
- Identify and educate key stakeholders.
- Implement the programme at the prsion level.
- Monitor, evaluate and conduct quality assurance.
In 1991, the World Health Organization reported that 23 of 52 prison system surveyed allowed condoms in correctional facilities. In 2016, prison jurisdictions is many countries, still do not allow prison inmates access to condoms despite evidence that HIV prevalence and transmission risks are higher within prisoner populations that general community. Condoms, if used correctly and consistently, cant prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
The “Harm reduction in prison” course provides a useful introduction to themes related to drug use in the prison setting and risks related to the transmission of infections through drug use and sexual activities, as well as an introduction on risk reduction strategies and services in prison both from the point of view of service description and of specific organisational and methodological aspects related to the provision of these services in a setting such as prisons.
This website is part of the joint action ‘677085 / HA-REACT,’ which has received funding from the European Union’s Health Programme (2014-2020).