Resources for people who use drugs and parent,  for family/loved ones and health, harm reduction, substance use and social service workers 

Women who Use Drugs and Narcofeminism: Changing the Narrative | August 13  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzjkfve_LMo&t=1044s

Urban Survivors Union’s Narcofeminism Story Share in the US, the Antiprohibitionist Women’s Network in Brazil, and Metzineres in Spain, across the globe from each other, are all seeking to not just fulfill our material needs as women who use drugs and sell sex, but also our need for self-expression in culture projects.  Narcofeminism Story Share has been undertaken for three years by a diverse group of activist women who sell sex and use drugs. It delineates the difference between the stories we tell to survive--the ones steeped in reductive abstinence model dogma which we tell probation officers, social workers, and other gatekeepers---and those we tell to make sense of our messy, complicated lives. Narcofeminism Story Share honors truths we’ve only heard before in the informal oral history of other drug-using and sex-selling women, behind closed doors, but never in mainstream representations of our lives. It is about crafting and telling stories which disrupt the ubiquitous narratives upholding stigma against us, allowing for our criminalization and victimization as well as our own self-hatred.During this presentation, Narcofeminism Story Share leaders Louise Vincent,Dinah Ortiz, and Caty Simon will tell their own stories challenging mainstream narratives about topics like women’s initiation into injection drug use by men and the overdose crisis. They will discuss how writing, editing, and telling these stories helped them challenge their own internalized stigma, built up over years of criminalization and trauma. Finally, they’ll explain how through this project, story sharing has become a vital organizing tool in UrbanSurvivors Union and North Carolina Survivors Union work with many different populations, from women with Hep C to methadone patients.

Stimulus Connect 8: Harm Reduction Tools for Parents and Caregivers | Stimulus Conference 2020  (Canadian)

December 4, 2020

There are a range of factors, and layers of overlapping oppression that can challenge parents and caregivers who use substances. This oppression may include sexism, racism, colonialism, classism and homophobia. What are some harm reduction strategies for parents or caregivers who use substances? What are the implications of professionals making assumptions about parents and other caregivers who use substances (e.g. what is the real duty to report)? How can service providers address barriers faced by caregivers accessing services? How should we manage children’s services? What do we do when there is no “best practice”? Please join us as we Connect.

In preparation we gathered a few resources, documents and media articles that you may be find helpful.

• Stimulus Connect 4: Women, Drugs, Pregnancy and the State which includes the recording of our previous event in addition to 25 related resources, documents and media articles

• Journal Article: Gendered drug policy: Motherisk and the regulation of mothering in Canada, 2019

• Watch: Pregnancy and Substance Use Disorders: An Overview of Care Principles and Clinical Considerations, 6/18/20

• Media: Mothers of children removed from their care are more likely to accidentally overdose, study shows, 11/19/20 which includes an open source link to the Journal Article: Overdose among mothers: The association between child removal and unintentional drug overdose in a longitudinal cohort of marginalised women in Canada (direct link to closed article)

• Program: Journey to Zero

• Resource: Women & Harm Reduction: WHAI is working with communities across Ontario to build capacity to respond to women’s harm reduction related needs

• Resource: Mothering and Opioids: Addressing Stigma and Acting Collaboratively

Criminalization, racism, citizenship, ableism, and parenting impact a person’s ability to find work, and the informal sale of services and goods (e.g. drug selling, sex work, street vending) is a lifeline for many who are shut out of or choose not to work in the formal economy. COVID-19 has disrupted markets, further exacerbating economic instability and increasing the risk of COVID-19 and police aggression and violence.

This is the fifth in a series of seven discussions that DPA held on COVID-19 and drug policy. These discussions bring together advocates and allies in the justice reform movement to discuss how we can sustain progress, which obstacles still remain, and how we can use the current moment to be more aspirational with our policy agendas.

Speakers: Leila Raven, DecrimNY and Hacking and Hustling; Caty Simon, Urban Survivors Union; Tamika Spellman, HIPS; Nik Theodore, University of Chicago   To learn more, visit https://www.drugpolicy.org/covid19series 

You're doing what? Merging Harm Reduction and Trauma‐Informed Practice in VAW Shelters

This webinar focuses on how harm reduction philosophy and practices are being implemented in many Violence Against Women (VAW) shelters in Ontario. Harm reduction is complementary to the trauma-informed practices that shelters are already applying in service delivery to the women and children they support. The linkages between harm reduction and trauma-informed practice will be examined both on a theoretical level and through analysis of case situations specific to the adult and child residents in shelters. The case situations are drawn from qualitative research data based on work with VAW shelters in Ontario.  

Race, Pregnancy, and the Opioid Epidemic: White Privilege and the Criminalization of Opioid Use During Pregnancy

In NAPW's study, Arrests of and Forced Interventions on Pregnant Women in the United States, 1973-2005: Implications for Women's Legal Status and Public Health, Jeanne Flavin and Lynn M. Paltrow documented the fact that an overwhelming and disproportionate number of arrests and detentions were brought against women of color and especially low-income Black women. Such women were targeted because of their race, pregnancy, and drug use - most often cocaine. Since 2005, and with attention shifting to the use of opioids, the majority of women arrested in relationship to their pregnancies have been low-income, rural white women. NAPW is honored to have Professor Khiara M. Bridges join us in a webinar that examines this shift, why it has happened, and what we can learn about white privilege from this shift. 

Pregnancy and Substance Use: A Harm Reduction Toolkit National Harm Reduction Coalition + Academy of Perinatal Harm Reduction (United States)

09.17.20_Pregnancy-and-Substance-Use-2.pdf (harmreduction.org) and attached

This toolkit on pregnancy and substance use from a harm reduction perspective includes information intended for pregnant and parenting people who use drugs, their loved ones, and their service providers. It includes guidance about motivational interviewing and stigma reduction, information about the effects of substance use during pregnancy and when breastfeeding, and treatment options. In addition, there is information about navigating the health care and legal systems and information about child welfare policies specific to New York State.  A tool-kit on pregnancy and substance use from a harm reduction perspective from the Harm Reduction Coalition and the Academy of Perinatal Harm Reduction.

Drugs, Alcohol, and Parenting: A workbook for parents (from the United Kingdom)  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T0S-es37xpPNmbZ6I9-U1m-aHhIharwF/view?usp=sharing Who this book is for: This is a workbook for parents who want to think about the impact their drug use/alcohol use and lifestyle may have on their children.  It has been written to help you discuss things with your drug worker, counselor, social worker, or other person who is supporting you, to understand the situation better and to think about any changes you could make.  Written by Mary Glover - an experienced childcare social worker, drug worker and trainer, the book explains what children need, what social care services expect, and how drugs and alcohol can affect childcare. The book helps parents understand what they need to do, and also gives practical tips on how to do it. With unique self-scoring questions, parents and workers are able to assess the situation, and monitor and chart progress over time.  A child protection ‘the bottom line’ page in every section means that everyone knows exactly where they stand, preventing misunderstandings and giving children the best possible chance of being cared for by their parents. As well as being an excellent case work tool, the book provides workers new to the field with a clear explanation of the issues. Divided into sections, the book covers:

• Drug and alcohol use;

• The needs of children;

• Safety in the home; and

• Support networks.

How The War On Drugs Provides The Path To Ending The Right To Abortion

The war on drugs involves criminal laws that prohibit possession and distribution of certain substances by certain groups of people. It also responds to a public health issues (drug dependency) through the criminal law system. Laws that prohibit common human activities - such as drinking alcohol, using drugs, and having abortions have all failed to stop those activities. As we know, when abortion was fully criminalized in the U.S. it is estimated that between 200,000 and 1 million women had abortions each year. And clearly neither alcohol nor drug prohibition stopped the use of those substances. While many people feel that the war on drugs is a completely separate issue from the war on abortion, history, and experience at NAPW demonstrates how these two mechanisms of government control are connected and synergistic when it comes to efforts to end the right to choose abortion and give government authorities power to control pregnant people.

This Webinar provides an overview of the war on drugs and discusses how it is providing the design and methods for depriving pregnant people of their right to abortion and their status as full rights bearing persons.

Panelists include: Lynn M. Paltrow, Deborah Small, Amber Khan

Women, Harm Reduction, and HIV Pinkham S, Malinowska-Sempruch K (2007). Women, Harm Reduction, and HIV. New York: International Harm Reduction Development Program of the Open Society Institute. women_20070920.pdf  (International)

“For women who inject drugs, the stigma of injection drug use is added to gendered discrimination; these factors combined can push women into behaviors that increase their risk of HIV. Factors that reduce women drug users’ access to health care include punitive policies, discrimination by police and health care providers, the intense social stigma attached to drug use by women, a preponderance of harm reduction and drug treatment programs directed primarily toward men, an absence of sexual and reproductive health services for drug users, and poor access to effective outpatient drug treatment, in which methadone or buprenorphine are prescribed to reduce cravings for illicit opiates.” “Increasing women drug users’ access to needed services, including drug treatment, harm reduction, and sexual and reproductive health care services, is crucial. Achieving this goal requires policies that encourage women to seek drug treatment and harm reduction rather than punishing or stigmatizing them for drug use during pregnancy or motherhood; increased availability of medication-assisted treatment; incorporation of sexual and reproductive health and other women’s services into harm reduction programs; flexible, low-threshold services that are more convenient for women with children; and links between harm reduction, drug treatment, women’s shelters, and violence prevention services.”