Mental health, drugs and the call to reinstate harm reduction

Abstract

There is a risk that harm reduction is being taken for granted. Despite saving many hundreds of thousands of lives from HIV and AIDS and the ongoing value it provides to drug and alcohol treatment, its principles have not travelled well ‐ and at worst are being forgotten or shunned by some hardliners. Here, David Chaisty champions the logic and power of harm reduction to reassert its use not just among drug or alcohol problems, but also for people with mental health issues.