Meeting People "where they’re at": Integrating Medical Care into Harm Reduction Space

Saturday, April 26, 2025

10:30 AM – 11:45 AM

Presenter(s)

Susan Spratt

Associate Director of Clinical Services
OnPoint NYC
New York, New York
Benjamin T. Hayes, MD

Assistant Professor; Medical Director OnPoint NYC
Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center
Bronx, New York
Andrea U. Jakubowski, MD, MS

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center
Bronx, New York
Teresa Lopez-Castro, PhD

Associate Professor
The City College of New York
New York, New York
Michael Pappas, MD

Senior Clinician: Drug User Healthcare
OnPoint NYC
New York, New York

Non-presenting author(s)

Aaron D. Fox, MD, MS

Professor of Medicine
Montefiore Medical Center-Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Bronx, New York
LS

L. Synn Stern, RN, MPH

Health Clinic Nurse
OnPoint NYC
NY, New York

In pursuit of an ideal model of care that will better engage people who use drugs than traditional medical models, this session will focus on integrating medical and mental health care into harm reduction spaces. Led by a multidisciplinary team with decades of research and clinical experience in harm reduction settings, the multidisciplinary faculty will present principles for low-threshold care and give 3 case examples of evidence-based interventions tailored for syringe services programs.

Learning Objectives:

Learners will be able to:

Upon completion, participants will be able to describe several principles of low-threshold care that incorporate both medical and harm reduction values.
Upon completion, participants will be able to describe processes for successful collaboration between medical and harm reduction specialists.
Upon completion, participants will be able to list at least two case examples of evidenced-based interventions adapted for harm reduction settings.

Disclosure(s):

Susan Spratt: No financial relationships to disclose

Benjamin T. Hayes, MD: No financial relationships to disclose

Andrea U. Jakubowski, MD, MS: No financial relationships to disclose

Teresa Lopez-Castro, PhD: No financial relationships to disclose

Aaron D. Fox, MD, MS: Wolters Kluwer (UptoDate): Royalties for chapter authorship (Ongoing)

Michael Pappas, MD: No financial relationships to disclose

L. Synn Stern, RN MPH: No financial relationships to disclose