Harm reduction in the social work with addicts – the Polish example

This paper focuses on the model of harm reduction from the perspective of social work. The first section presents key theoretical assumptions behind two strategies for helping persons addicted to psychoactive substances: a traditional one aimed at maintaining total abstinence, and the strategy under discussion, which is related to mitigating the consequences arising as a result of alcohol consumption or use of illicit drugs. Both these paradigms are treated as complementary, though in light of therapeutic actions (medical and psychological) from which they have originated and developed, they differ from each other among others in terms of their targets, how they define the aid relationship, their rules of providing aid and criteria for verifying its efficiency. Section two analyzes the relations between the concept of harm reduction and social work in its theoretical and practical dimensions. The existing literature on social work and, separately, on the theory of addiction, lacks any references to or research into the mutual influences of the harm reduction model and its application to social work. The above topic has not been examined in a systematic fashion so far, but rather it was limited solely to indicating certain related forms of actions taken in the community. This paper fills that gap and tries to make an assessment of the usefulness and significance of the above paradigm in the practice of social work with addicts, with a focus on the Polish welfare system.
 

This paper focuses on the model of harm reduction from the perspective of social work. The first section presents key theoretical assumptions behind two strategies for helping persons addicted to psychoactive substances: a traditional one aimed at maintaining total abstinence, and the strategy under discussion, which is related to mitigating the consequences arising as a result of alcohol consumption or use of illicit drugs. Both these paradigms are treated as complementary, though in light of therapeutic actions (medical and psychological) from which they have originated and developed, they differ from each other among others in terms of their targets, how they define the aid relationship, their rules of providing aid and criteria for verifying its efficiency. Section two analyzes the relations between the concept of harm reduction and social work in its theoretical and practical dimensions. The existing literature on social work and, separately, on the theory of addiction, lacks any references to or research into the mutual influences of the harm reduction model and its application to social work. The above topic has not been examined in a systematic fashion so far, but rather it was limited solely to indicating certain related forms of actions taken in the community. This paper fills that gap and tries to make an assessment of the usefulness and significance of the above paradigm in the practice of social work with addicts, with a focus on the Polish welfare system.