Harm Reduction Learning Institute
DC Health

The Harm Reduction Learning Institute – reduceharmdc.org – offers providers, community leaders, and other harm reductionists free education and training covering key topics from naloxone administration and overdose response to stigma reduction and community outreach.

Your Online Resource for Harm Reduction Education and Training

The Institute features a comprehensive substantive curriculum designed to address the complex challenges surrounding substance use. These courses offer comprehensive, innovative insights and evidence-based practices that reflect the evolving landscape of harm reduction, including:

  • Harm reduction strategies for diverse populations,
  • Facilitating a healthy and productive patient-provider relationship, and
  • Opioid use and how to prevent or treat overdoses.

Take a Training

SAVE THE DATE
DC Engage Harm Reduction Conference

April 7, 2025

Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
Washington, DC

Latest Trainings

  • Ethical and Compassionate Pregnancy Care for Patients Who Use Drugs

    This webinar will explore the ethical and compassionate approaches needed to provide effective care during pregnancy for patients who are using drugs. Focusing on both the health of the patient and their baby, faculty will examine the importance of nonjudgmental, evidence-based practices that support harm reduction, informed choice, and autonomy.

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  • Navigating Medical Mistrust in Urgent Care and Emergency Departments

    This webinar will address the critical issue of medical mistrust among individuals who use drugs, especially within the high-stress environments of emergency departments and urgent care centers. Many people who use drugs face unique barriers to receiving compassionate, non-judgmental care in these settings, often due to past experiences of discrimination, stigmatization, and misunderstanding.

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  • Screening, Diagnosis, and Linkage to Care to Improve Longitudinal Care for Opioid Use Disorder and Stimulant Use Disorder

    This webinar discusses strategies to increase and improve clinicians’ capacity to provide care for people with OUD and substance use disorder (StUD), increase linkage to care and engagement across various settings, and increase equitable delivery and access to care/services among people who use drugs, as well as those previously underserved by overdose prevention programs.

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Latest Resources

  • Community Mapping and Identifying Priority Populations for HIV Prevention and Care

    This 2023 Community Mapping Toolkit for D.C. Organizations details how visualizing health disparities can help outreach programs for HIV prevention. The toolkit explores how community mapping can support your work, what goes into creating a community map, and how to use mapping tools that are available online.

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  • TIP 63: Medications for Opioid Use Disorder

    This Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) reviews the use of the three Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications used to treat OUD—methadone, naltrexone, and buprenorphine—and the other strategies and services needed to support recovery for people with OUD.

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  • The Opioid Crisis and the Black/African American Population: An Urgent Issue

    This issue brief presents recent data on prevalence of opioid misuse and death rates in the Black/AA population; contextual factors & challenges to prevention & treatment; innovative outreach & engagement strategies to connect people to evidence-based treatment; and the importance of community voice.

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