Harm Reduction Windsor: Resources

12/11/2025

Perspective is everything. Change the lens. Change the story.

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12/04/2025

Last night’s meeting hit me in a way I didn’t expect. We talked about what it really means to give ourselves grace. Not as a buzzword, not as a free pass, but as a practice.

Grace is the moment you choose understanding over shame.
Grace is remembering that growth isn’t linear.
Grace is allowing yourself to be human in a world that demands perfection.
Grace is meeting yourself where you’re at, not where you think you “should” be.

For anyone navigating trauma, substance use, recovery, harm reduction, or just everyday life, here's something to keep in mind... Grace isn’t about lowering the bar. It’s about stopping the internal war long enough to breathe, reflect, and keep going with compassion instead of punishment.

We all deserve that.
You deserve that.

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12/02/2025

Winter hits hardest for people who use drugs and people without housing — and staying warm is harm reduction.

Cold slows the body down, increases overdose risk, and makes it harder to stay safe.
Look out for each other, share resources, carry naloxone, and check in on the folks around you.

No one should have to fight for warmth alone. ❄️🧡

12/02/2025

B.C. group pushes back against involuntary care, saying it will criminalize people

A coalition of health-care workers and advocacy groups in British Columbia is opposing proposed expansions to involuntary treatment under the Mental Health Act for people with substance-use disorders.

About 300 physicians, nurses, and allied-health professionals have signed a petition refusing to “certify” people based solely on substance use — arguing the law shouldn’t be used to “lock up” people whose only diagnosis is drug use.

Critics warn that forced treatment is traumatic, undermines long-term recovery, and will disproportionately target marginalized communities — including unhoused people, people who use drugs, immigrants, Indigenous people, Black people, disabled people, transgender folks, and racialized communities.

A health-care worker with experience in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside called the proposed changes “paternalism at its simplest,” comparing the language to policies used historically for forced sterilization or police violence under the Mental Health Act.

Instead of involuntary care, critics argue we need to strengthen voluntary, low-barrier supports: housing, safer supply, harm-reduction services, and voluntary treatment — especially for people with overlapping mental-health and substance-use challenges.

The B.C. government announced last week that if passed, the bill's current language around involuntary care would make it clearer and more concise.

12/02/2025

Today on World AIDS Day, we honour the past, support the present, and protect the future.

HIV testing is free, fast, and confidential.
PrEP and PEP are powerful tools that prevent HIV.
Stigma is still one of the biggest barriers to care — and we can change that together.

Knowing your status is strength.
Access to prevention is a right.
Everyone deserves dignity, safety, and support.

11/29/2025

🧡 Windsor-Essex now has a HART Hub — a low-barrier, wrap-around support space for people dealing with homelessness, mental-health and substance use challenges. The Hub brings together primary care, mental health & addictions services, peer support, housing help, and basic needs (food, shelter, etc.).

Instead of letting people fall through the cracks — or ending up in emergency rooms — HART is meant to be a place where help is accessible, immediate, and compassionate.

This is the kind of community-care model we need more of — especially now, when the overdose crisis, mental-health strain, and homelessness are all hitting hard.

If you or someone you know needs support in Windsor-Essex, this is a place you can turn to. Let’s keep talking about harm reduction, dignity and care — and make sure nobody gets left behind. 💪

Heres the link:

A new hub aims to help people struggling with mental health and addictions in Windsor-Essex.

11/29/2025

The Globe & Mail recently published an important piece called “Labour Lost – How Opioids Are Hollowing Out the Construction Industry.” Moms Stop The Harm members Lorna Thomas and Traci Letts shared how the drug poisoning crisis is devastating workers in the trades and the families left behind.

This isn’t about “bad choices.” It’s about pain, trauma, lack of support, unpredictable/unregulated drug supply, and the pressures that many trades workers face every day. People are losing coworkers, friends, and loved ones and the ripple effects hit entire communities.

Talking about this can be heavy, but silence is what continues the harm. If you work in the trades, know someone who does, or just care about the people building our communities, please take a moment to read and share.

We need safer supply, real support, and systems that value people’s lives over stigma.

Link to article: https://web.archive.org/web/20251122140207/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-opioid-overdose-deaths-skilled-trades-labour/

11/25/2025

BE INFORMED.
SEEK TESTING.
BE INVOLVED.

National HIV/AIDS Awareness Week

》Learn how HIV is transmitted — and how it isn’t

》Free and confidential testing is available in Windsor

Harm reduction saves lives

Community care = prevention

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11/21/2025

I’m beyond thrilled and honestly so grateful to have had the opportunity to attend this year’s CCSA Issues of Substance Conference as both a speaker and a participant. It was such an empowering experience.

I met so many incredible people doing impactful work across the country, and I had the chance to sit in on presentations that covered a huge range of topics, including:

Mental health

Substance use & harm reduction

Gambling and gaming

Family support & caregiver perspectives

Trauma-informed care

Indigenous health and wellness

Youth substance use & prevention

Recovery pathways

Housing, homelessness & community care

Supervised consumption & safer supply

Policy, advocacy, and human rights

Stigma reduction

Health equity & culturally grounded care

Every session reminded me how much passion and innovation exists in this field.

I’m coming back to Windsor feeling inspired, energized, and excited to share what I’ve learned with my community. Hoping I get the chance to return in the next couple of years because this conference truly fills my cup. 💛✨

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11/15/2025

Apparently these stuffies sparked some controversy on Jazmine Kristina’s page…
How about stay mad, if you don’t like the stuffies, we do not care. Both of these medications have saved our lives. Naloxone gave us another day to get on MAT, and MAT gave our lives back.

We do not care about your opinion, because we have our own opinion and experiences and we are happy with them, because they got us here.

11/15/2025

I want to talk about something we don’t discuss enough: “stigma by association.”

People who use drugs already face so much judgment. But what many don’t realize is that harm reduction workers... the people supporting them... also experience stigma just for doing this work.

This can look like being treated differently in healthcare settings, being judged for caring about our community, or even being seen as “enabling” instead of helping. It creates real emotional strain, burnout, and pushes good workers out of the field.

For many of us, this work is deeply meaningful. But meaning alone doesn’t erase the stigma, the microaggressions, the low pay, the lack of proper supports, or the emotional weight we carry.

And when harm reduction workers burn out or leave, it’s not just a “staffing issue”. It's a public health issue. People lose trusted relationships, vital support, and services that literally save lives.

If we want safer communities, we need to support the people doing the work. That means valuing lived experience, improving pay and benefits, offering mental health supports, and challenging the stigma that shows up in healthcare, workplaces, and society as a whole.

Harm reduction workers deserve respect, support, and safety too. 💛

Everyone knows about the stigma faced by people who use drugs. What’s far less visible is the stigma experienced by ...

11/13/2025

Today’s a reminder that kindness saves lives.
Whether it’s offering naloxone, listening without judgment, or handing out clean supplies... these are all acts of kindness that build safer communities. 💛

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#2025