Conference presentation focusing on media's representation of harm reduction, focus on local, regional and national media,

1. "Exploring Current Harm Reduction
Scenarios as Depicted in the Media"
Greg Riehl December 5th, 2012
Thunder Bay District Health Unit

2. • Hopefully my presentation will give you
some ideas on how to work with
organizations who do not support Harm
Reduction, and how to interpret and use
media more effectively.
Key Messages

3. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc
National Film Board

4. Ice breakers
Icebreaker

5. The Journey Begins

6. • Harm Reduction can take many faces
• I researched a lot
• From HR philosophy, to religion, to policy, to
science
• Get feedback from your people - Do you really
want an ‘official policy’? Maybe not . . .
Use media but be sure to educate
yourself

7. • Media plural of me·di·a (Noun)
• Noun:
• The main means of mass communication
regarded collectively: "the campaign won media
attention".
• An intermediate layer, esp. in the wall of a blood
vessel.
• The mass media are all those media technologies
that are intended to reach a large audience by mass
communication.
Media

8. “There is nothing either good or bad
but thinking makes it so”
William Shakespeare
Public Opinion

9. • What is the purpose of media?
• People aren’t killed by
earthquakes. They are killed by
falling buildings
Public Safety or Fear
Promotion

10. City to change
"medical clinic"
zoning description

11. Ecstasy-related deaths in B.C., Alberta
spark debate over how to fix poisonous
problem
HARM REDUCTION IS USEFUL
AND NECESSARY
Harm reduction not the solution to
addictions

12. “Harm Addition”
It isn’t about the person.. . .

13. MADD SADD
We don’t have MATS or SATS (mothers against
Tobacco and smoking or Students against tobacco
and smoking)

14. • While littering public places like playgrounds with used
needles is dangerous, hideous and a source of outrage, the
societal impact of addicts sharing used drug needles is
just as hideous.
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/Wall+masters+messaging+skills/7450027/story.html#ixzz2CzbXvoFA
Confirmation Bias and
Media

15. • Confirmation bias (also called confirmatory bias or
myside bias) is a tendency of people to favor information
that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses.
• People display this bias when they gather or remember
information selectively, or when they interpret it in a
biased way.
• The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and
for deeply entrenched beliefs.
Confirmation Bias and
Media

16. • Because of Confirmation Bias people will have a tough
time changing their minds on harm reduction.
• It is not the media’s position or job to change peoples’
minds
“Seeking to confirm our beliefs comes naturally, while if
feels strange and counterintuitive to look for evidence
that contradicts our beliefs”
Confirmation Bias and
Media

17. • "Harper has to recognize that if people stop taking drugs,
they have to deal with the tsunami of pain underlying
their addictions," he said. "Who's going to help them with
that? If there were lots of options for people to belong,
get affirmation, feel valued, there might be a reason for
being abstinent.“
David Diewert
Stephen Harper doesn’t like
Harm Reduction

18. PANIC
NIMBYism

19. continued
• Knowledge development and knowledge transfer
• Coordination, planning, evaluation and reporting
integrated approach to program implementation at multi-
sectoral levels
• Message and program priorities need support through
interpersonal and mass media communications and social
marketing
Overall Goals of Harm
Reduction

20. Those People

21. Know your audience

23. • Harm reduction programs save money and lives
• Free alcohol for extreme alcoholics cost-effective,
reduces police incidents
• Should you focus on the facts?
Wet Shelters

25. What are your experiences?

27. • Everyone here will
• The media obviously
accept information
play a key role inn
that supports their
getting waves started
opinion and ignore or
and keeping them
reject information that
rolling.
does not.
Media reports

28. • The media also
respond to rising
worry by producing • More fear - more
more reports – almost reporting.
always emotional
• More reporting - more
stories of suffering
and loss – about the fear.
thing that has people
worried
Media reports

29. • First Nations use traditions to tackle oxy problems
• Oxy battle rages on
• One drug, many problems
• Allowing generic oxys 'a step backwards'
• Thunder Bay police worry crime and addiction rates
will rise
• Anishinabek Nation Regional Chief Collins says feds
should be blocking generic OxyContin
oxycontin

30. • HIV clients face diverse treatments
• Clients report good and bad care given by health
professionals
• http://www.newstalk650.com/story/hiv-clients-face-diverse-treatments/85685
• One-sided info can't contribute to sound policy
• http://www.thestarphoenix.com/mobile/opinion/editorial/sided+info+contribute+sound+policy/7550844/story.html
• Sask. teenagers testing positive for HIV on the rise
• Global Regina | Sask. teenagers testing positive for HIV on the rise
What do I do?

31. • Sometimes you are more effective working on the
outside
• And by working on the outside keep your
connections on the inside
• Keep current
• Be an expert (or at least play an expert on…)
• Use the media
• Don’t burn bridges or slam doors
Working from the
inside

32. Hero, Victim,
Villain?
Hero
Victim Villain

33. • Promoting Equity through Harm Reduction In
Nursing Practice
• February 2008
• Keep doing the work
SRNA Position
Statement

34. • Need to be innovative
• Meet the needs of the population that you work
with
• Give and take
• Find solutions
• Need to find projects and action to keep moving
forward
Use media & be prepared

35. • 16th Annual CANAC Conference
• The Power if HIV Nursing: Context and
Connections
• April 19 – 22, 2008, Ottawa, ON at the Lord Elgin
Hotel
April 22, 2008 10:30 ET
Canadian AIDS Care Nurses Voice
Support for Harm Reduction
CANAC

36. • OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - April 22, 2008) - Nurses caring for people with HIV/AIDS
have a professional obligation to promote the health and well-being of their patients, which
includes supporting strategies that reduce harm to patients dealing with addictions, says the
Canadian Association for Nurses in AIDS Care (CANAC).
At the close of CANAC's eighth annual conference, held April 21 - 22 in Ottawa, the association
is calling on municipal, provincial and federal governments to immediately implement evidence-
based harm reduction programs throughout the country and to continue supporting those
already operating.
"Nurses are concerned about the lack of support for essential harm reduction programs in
Canada," says CANAC President Greg Riehl. "Harm reduction has been dropped from the
current government's new 'Anti-drug Strategy', and many vital programs are being threatened,
including needle exchanges, the safer crack kit program in Ottawa, and the supervised injection
site (Insite) in Vancouver, despite research showing that these programs work."
The City of Ottawa recently withdrew support for the city's safer crack kit program and is now
considering imposing a restrictive one-for-one needle exchange policy.
"These actions represent a major step backwards," Riehl continues. "We need maximum - not
restricted - access to programs that prevent disease and suffering."
Harm reduction is part of
professional and ethical nursing
standards

37. “(Critics) should be taking two steps back and focusing on the
homeless people trying to deal with their pain so they’re using
injection drugs,” said Greg Riehl, president of the Canadian
Association for Nurses in AIDS Care (CANAC)
“The needles are a symptom of what’s happening in society.”
The association, closing its annual conference here, held a press
conference yesterday in which it called on all levels of
government — and for every day Canadians — to support
“harm reduction programs” that have come under fire recently
for dispensing free drug paraphernalia to addicts.
Put focus on addicts: Nurses

38. “People who use drugs need to be given options and
those options include harm reduction, and they also
include treatment,” said Greg Riehl, CANAC
president.
“If we don’t have harm reduction, if we don’t have
Insite, those people will be dead. Dead people cannot
enter into treatment.”
Harper urged to extend drug
injection site agreement

39. Represent whenever and wherever
you can
2008 International AIDS
Conference

40. • Dedication and Action at the Forefront of
HIV/AIDS;
• Advances and Improved Practices in HIV/AIDS
Care: CANAC‘s experience.
• August 2nd, 2008 Mentoring, partnership and Collaboration:
Respect for Human Rights:
Diversity:
Participation and Empowerment:
Integration:
Accountability:
Advocacy and leadership:
International Nurses‘ Forum

41. • The Saskatchewan Registered Nurses' Association
delivers timely information about the nursing industry
through regular video podcasts.
• Harm Reduction Greg Riehl is the President Canadian
Association of Nurses involved in AIDS Care.
• He is currently working with Health Canada as the
HIV/AIDS/Bloodborne Pathogens/Sexually
Transmitted Infections Regional Coordinator for
Health Canada First Nations and Inuit Health Programs
Saskatchewan. Media files 2008_mar_19.mp4 (Movie
Clip)
SRNA - The SRNA Podcast Feed

42. • Harm Reduction asks us to look at ourselves
and how we offer services. As nurses, are we
really open and accessible to those we want
to reach? The intention of Harm Reduction is
to help people make informed decisions and
empower our clients to reduce the risk of
HIV infection.
Back to Nursing for
support

43. Who are you accountable to?
And who do you work for?
Do you have a communications
department

44. You may have to change
the message
Restoring Balance through Harm Reduction
Balance Restoration

45. “Our lives begin to end
the day we become silent
about the things
that matter”
MLK

46. • Empirical Science Meets Moral Panic:
• An Analysis of the Politics of Needle
Exchange
• DAVID BUCHANAN, SUSAN SHAW, AMY
FORD, and MERRILL SINGER
“We need to speak with one voice, but this is difficult
because we don’t speak with one voice”
Research

47. • Why is everyone talking about Saskatchewan and
what is so unique about the epidemiology of this
province?
• Hear from an RN in Saskatchewan how these
numbers can help or hinder communities, agencies
and, most importantly, people in the Prairies living
with HIV.
Use data and epidemiology
to drive your message home

48. https://www.facebook.com/pages/SK-HIV-Hep-C-Nursing-Education-
Organization/259234590779534
Social Media
Facebook Twitter

49. • We need to speak with one voice, but this is difficult
because we don’t speak with one voice
• Social media can be your friend, and it can be the
friend of people opposed to Harm Reduction
• Don’t stop
• Focusing strictly on empirical evidence has not
worked so far.
• Don’t get caught in the trap of trying to prove your
point (over, & over & over, & over & over…)
You need to be heard, or at
least listened to.

50. Saskatchewan Public Health Association

51. Summary
• As a Registered Nurse, I care about my profession
• As a citizen I care about people
• We must support culturally competent care to all
people.
• Western culture tends to blame the victim.
• Harm reduction can improve the quality of
people’s lives.
• We are all faced with several risk factors, at one
time or another, that puts us at risk for ...

52. • Greg Riehl
• gregriehl@sasktel.net
• I will post this presentation on www.slideshare.net
• Thanks again…
Thank you for your time

53. Here is the schedule:
8:30 to 9:00am – Registration
9:00 to 10:15am – Keynote Speaker (THIS IS YOU!)
10:15 to 10:30am – Refreshment Break
10:30 to 11:45am – Breakout Session #1 (two concurrent
sessions; pick one)
11:45 am to 12:40pm – Lunch (a film will be shown)
12:45 to 2:00pm – Breakout Session #2 (two concurrent
sessions; pick one)
2:00 to 2:15pm – Refreshment Break
2:15 to 3:30pm – Break Out Session #3 (2 concurrent
sessions; pick one) - YOU WILL BE PRESENTING
HERE
3:30 to 3:45pm – Wrap up session/evaluation
I am here all day today and can answer any questions you
might have!