Harm Reduction

What is harm reduction; it is a philosophy considering whole public health. Here, the main idea is that people will continuously engage in behaviors, which are going to have risks.

In this philosophy, the goal is to realize that there is this element of risk evident. Some risks specifically defined by this type of philosophy include prostitution risks, drug use and casual sex. While the ideal goes much deeper, this is the basic premise of the philosophy.

The key here is that in harm reduction, the methods employed are not meant to completely stop the risk from happening because the belief is that no matter what strict requirements are put in place, including legal blocks, people will still engage in these acts.

Rather, in this method of dealing with those risks, the goal is to make the risks safer, so to speak, than they could have been. For example, while people will always consume alcohol and many will make the choice to get into a car drunk, the harm reduction theory implies methods that can circumvent that risk without removing the alcohol. The use of designated driver campaigns falls into line with this theory as well.

Other types of harm reduction methods include providing condoms to public school kids who are likely to engage in sex even though they have warnings against it. Needle exchange programs are another method as well as drug legalization and even heroin maintenance programs.

Those that believe in the theories of harm reduction believe that no one should be told they could not do something they want to do including areas of social security and health care. Yet, many people do believe that precautions and help should be out there to help reduce the amount of risk in place to the public as a whole.