Susan Ousterman: I didn’t know about harm reduction when my son was alive, but I do recall the first time we practiced it. He was in a motel, and he wouldn’t admit that he was using, so he wouldn’t take naloxone. My daughter and I sat outside the hotel room in the car, and he had to text me every few minutes, because we would be ready to beat down the door and use naloxone if necessary. That’s harm reduction.
Nobody wants to accept that their child might be injecting drugs. Not allowing them to have access to what they need is not going to stop them.
If your child came to you and said, I’m going to do this, would you want them to reuse a syringe and risk getting endocarditis or HIV or hepatitis C, or would you want them to use a clean syringe?
We need to keep them safe regardless of how we feel. We need to remove our expectations and judgments from the equation, because that’s what’s killing people, stigma, expectations, assumptions, judgments, those are dangerous. We need to love people where they are.
Harm reduction is unconditional love. We practice harm reduction without knowing it, and we need access to the tools for everyone to be able to do this.
About Susan Ousterman: In 2020, Susan lost her son Tyler to an accidental overdose of fentanyl and xylazine. Today, she fiercely advocates for a public health approach to drug use to prevent overdose, improve health, and save lives.
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