Name: ACCESS 2021 Maryland Harm Reduction Conference
Start: 05/08/2021 12:35 PM +00:00
End: 05/08/2021 09:00 PM +00:00

Opening Ceremony

Restorative Justice is a philosophy and set of practices that engage the community in building healthy relationships and repairing harm through inclusive dialogue, deep understanding, and shared power. By incorporating restorative justice practices into a program’s harm reduction framework, we can begin to provide a healthy community and a meaningful voice to PWUDs, sex workers, and all others that we serve. This session will address trust and empowerment in the areas of restorative inquiries (staff-participant delivery) and restorative circle techniques (harm reduction support groups).

Sal Corbin

Track 1 - Restorative Justice

We often think of injection related wounds and self-injury in completely different ways, and for many people they are unrelated topics. There are, however, people for whom these issues are related. In this session we will establish a safe space and explore practical strategies to address the possibility of wound care and self-injury overlap, including how to ask about current or past self-injury, strategies to discern when it is appropriate to ask, and how to be a source of support.

Harriet Smith

Laura Bartolomei-Hill

Track 2 - Beyond Wound Care: The Relationship Between Wounds And Self Injury

This workshop asks us to reconcile our abilities as service providers while understanding that the demands of clients’ lives are complex. As service providers, we must navigate our own internalized biases and the structural forces that bear down on our communities. These biases shape the material realities and livelihoods of our clients, which re-affirms the necessity of providing dynamic and reachable services. Thus, attendees will leave this workshop with a deeper understanding of what it means to be low barrier along with tools for making their spaces more accessible to people who use drugs and people who sell sex (recognizing that these are not mutually exclusive terms).

Alexis Wilson

Track 3 - What Does It Mean To Be "Low Barrier"

Break

With the growing number of Mental Health First Aid and Overdose response trainings offered, there is a clear need for peer and community based responses to behavioral health crises. These are vital tools in reducing the violence and trauma that often accompany these types of crises, especially as a way to keep people out of the criminal justice system. This training seeks to expand on this by discussing how to respond to behavioral health crises that involve substance use but not overdoses. Participants will gain practical tips and information on both responding during a crisis and how to provide after-care.

Nina Ovian

Track 2 - My Friend Is High And Freaking Out, What Do I Do

Rural areas tend to have fewer services available and fewer providers, but also present the opportunity to develop close relationships among a variety of partners, to improve outcomes for those we serve. Through prioritizing partnerships, we are able to address gaps in services and reach those who may otherwise be missed. During this interactive session, attendees will learn strategies to build stronger partnerships in their own communities and to develop innovative ways to reach a community in need.

Sandy Kerrigan

Track 3 - It Takes A Village Or The Village People

We need to understand how harm reduction fits into our work towards a just and equitable world, however this is often overlooked as it takes deeper discussion. This session will explore how racial justice, in particular, is central to harm reduction work and how harm reduction is central to the movement for racial justice. The session space will demand self-knowledge, deep reflection, and willingness to engage but it will also be joyful and generative.

Track 1 - Harm Reduction And A More Just World

Staff, peers, and others who have served and supported those experiencing addictions are not always allowed to grieve when their clients and patients die. This session will serve as a safe space for participants by facilitating hands-on exercises that explore the various components of grief and loss, especially from a workplace perspective. Participants will learn coping methods and strategies and how loss affects individuals physically, emotionally, cognitively, behaviorally, and spiritually.

Lisa Connors

Track 2 - Hey, What About Me? I Need To Grieve Too!

Lunch Break

Yasmine Cheyenne

Keynote Session

This session will serve as both an introduction to the Maryland Harm Reduction Action Network (MHRAN) and as a chance to gather for those who need no introduction. MHRAN has served as a monthly space for collaborative learning, relationship building, and taking action to increase the awareness and implementation of harm reduction throughout the state. This conference is a perfect opportunity to assess, gather steam, and continue to do that work

Rajani Gudlavalleti

Scott Cecil

Track 1 - Special Meeting Of Maryland Harm Reduction Action Network

This presentation will examine the risk and control of HIV infections among those who share needles and syringes to inject drugs. Injection drug use (IDU) was the leading cause of new HIV diagnoses in Maryland from 1988 to 2001. Although both the number of new diagnoses and the percent of those diagnoses attributed to IDU has decreased in Maryland over the past 3 decades, the proportion of new HIV diagnoses attributed to IDU has increased slightly in recent years. This may indicate that progress in decreasing new diagnoses in this risk group may be stalling relative to other risk groups.

Trevor Alexander Hsu

Track 3 - Poster Session - HIV AMONG PEOPLE WHO INJECT DRUGS IN MARYLAND

Among Transgender women (TGW), resilience has been shown to be protective against the adverse impacts of violence, discrimination, and stigma. However, gaps remain in understanding the ways in which resilience factors may differ for TGW facing additional minority stressors, such as race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. This study aimed to identify individual and interpersonal determinants of violence and trauma as well as resilience and coping strategies to reduce the harm of violence and improve mental and physical health outcomes among a racially diverse sample of TGW in Los Angeles.

Abigail Winiker

Track 3 - Poster Session - INDIVIDUAL AND INTERPERSONAL SOURCES OF VIOLENCE AND RESILIENCE AMONG A DIVERSE SAMPLE OF TRANSGENDER WOMEN IN LA

Music and art therapy have long been used as supportive techniques in recovery. There are points in every song that can strike a chord and soothe overwhelming emotions that can come from grief due to loss. Revisiting this grief with music during group sessions can promote harm reduction by meeting individuals where they are and serve as a way for them to become present in their memory as they develop understanding about the phases of grief. This presentation will explore how music is a universal emotion navigator, provide examples of music and art facilitating the grief process, and offer understanding of how music can encourage a gentle approach to visiting painful memories.

Montressa Tripps

Track 3 - Poster Session - MUSIC AS A HEALING INFLUENCE IN HARM REDUCTION SUPPORT GROUPS

This presentation will provide participants with an overview of the COMPACT ACT 2020 &ndash; Recreation Therapy as covered healthcare treatment for Recovery, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety, Depression diagnoses and Suicide prevention. As well as an overview of clinical protocols in TBI diagnosis for survivors of non-fatal opioid overdoses, Recreation Therapy categories and nonprofit service providers, and the advantages of health insurance coverage for Recreation Therapy, especially as it relates to harm reduction.

Agenda

Speakers26 Speakers

Sal Corbin

Alex Wilson

Jacqui (BPD LEAD arrest policy in my "About") R. (she/her)

Nina Ovian

Sandy Kerrigan

Sara Howell

Michael Trader

Laura Bartolomei-Hill

Lisa Connors

Emily Heinlein

Ronald Phillips

Rajani Gudlavalleti

Owen O'Keefe

Scott Cecil

Cola Anderson

Onyịnye Alheri

Trevor Alexander Hsu

Abigail Winiker

Montressa Tripps

Carmen Skarlupka

Harriet Smith

Alexis Wilson

Miatta Kani-Goba

Yasmine Cheyenne

Gassoh Goba

Jacqui Robarge

Agenda

Speakers.css-1453wb6{margin:0;font-size:1.4rem;font-weight:500;line-height:1.5;color:#333333;font-family:'Poppins',sans-serif;margin-left:0.8rem;}26 Speakers

Sal Corbin

Alex Wilson

Jacqui (BPD LEAD arrest policy in my "About") R. (she/her)

Nina Ovian

Sandy Kerrigan

Sara Howell

Michael Trader

Laura Bartolomei-Hill

Lisa Connors

Emily Heinlein

Ronald Phillips

Rajani Gudlavalleti

Owen O'Keefe

Scott Cecil

Cola Anderson

Onyịnye Alheri

Trevor Alexander Hsu

Abigail Winiker

Montressa Tripps

Carmen Skarlupka

Harriet Smith

Alexis Wilson

Miatta Kani-Goba

Yasmine Cheyenne

Gassoh Goba

Jacqui Robarge

Speakers26 Speakers