Embedding Harm Reduction: A Community-Led Training Initiative for Aotearoa
Written by Casey Spearin
Casey Spearin from KnowYourStuffNZ (KYSNZ) tells of an exciting new initiative from several harm reduction community organisations based in Aotearoa, developed to fill a key training gap in the health and addictions sector.
We were fortunate to attend the CSaPTA national gathering in March, where KYSNZ helped facilitate a breakout session with Te Ara Kaitiaki, a rōpū made up of skilled peers from Psycare, FestAid, the Needle Exchange, Deep Space, Ngā Kaitiaki, and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
Harm reduction breakout room
For those who are unfamiliar with KnowYourStuffNZ, we are a peer-led organisation offering drug checking and harm reduction services at events and community clinics across the motu. Last year we attended 165 events and worked with over 6000 clients!
Know Your Stuff volunteers
Our work is grounded in science, and guided by harm reduction - a philosophy and a set of practices that seek to minimise the negative impacts of drug use and drug laws. This approach is central across all types of drug use, whether recreational, therapeutic, or ceremonial. Rather than rehashing why harm reduction practices are so relevant and important in the context of psychedelic therapy, I’ll just recommend that you watch the incredible Jai Whelan’s closing keynote from the gathering, or read the Harm Reduction Coalition’s resource Principles of Harm Reduction.
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Heading into the hui, we weren’t sure how harm reduction would land. Would attendees see it as relevant? Would it connect to the wider conversations?
We needn’t have worried. Harm reduction values—compassion, consent, equity, and accountability—were woven through every conversation. In our breakout sessions, we explored how harm reduction plays out in clinical, ceremonial, and recreational settings, and how it operates across individual, whānau, peer, and societal levels. Together, we dreamt big: What would it take to embed harm reduction more widely across Aotearoa? What’s urgent? What’s possible?
A clear theme emerged: within our close circles, harm reduction is foundational. But beyond them, it's still often misunderstood or overlooked. Despite drug use touching most people’s lives in some way, few professionals receive training in how to support people from a harm reduction perspective.
Each rōpū member could point to communities—primary care, emergency services, student halls—where harm reduction education is lacking. Many of us came to this work not through formal training, but after witnessing firsthand the harms of criminalisation and stigmatisation and asking, surely there’s a better way?
This is not to dismiss the current training and education options available in Aotearoa. But much of the current training in health and addictions still centres abstinence-based models. While these have their place, they often exclude people who continue to use drugs—people who still deserve care, dignity, and support.
Harm reduction philosophy prioritises “meeting people where they are at”, meaning that current drug use shouldn’t preclude someone from receiving support. And these approaches work - needle exchanges programmes have been shown to be one of the most cost-effective public health interventions in existence. Especially at a time when drug consumption and toxicity in the drug market are increasing, there is a massive opportunity to embed harm reduction practices across the health and support services across Aotearoa.
We have already led the world through the establishment of needle exchange programmes in the 1980s and by legalising drug checking in 2020. These services were not established through focus groups or government programmes - they were built by communities of people who use drugs, for people who use drugs, to address the real harm occurring in these communities. And they work!
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In recent months, our rōpū has come together to co-design an independent, peer-led online learning platform to embed harm reduction more deeply across Aotearoa. Through hui held from April to June, we developed a shared framework and set of values to guide the platform’s creation.
The goal is simple: to make harm reduction education accessible to those who need it most — health workers, community leaders, peer supporters, and anyone engaging with drug use in their work or lives.
Proposed content includes:
Harm Reduction principles - what they are and how they apply to everyday life.
Positionality and spiritual care - tikanga-based protocols, spiritual first aid, cultural supervision and accountability
Practical tools - for reducing the risks and harms associated with substance use
Critical thinking about drug use - including the history and ongoing impacts of prohibition and criminalisation, in Aotearoa and internationally
Substance-specific knowledge – focusing on the drugs most commonly in circulation or those with high harm potential
Mental health first aid - supporting people in distress, from trip-sitting to crisis response and reintegration
Recognising drug induced psychosis - and guiding people towards appropriate help
Stigma and language – learning to speak and act in ways that are non-judgemental and supportive
Consent - how altered states can affect consent, safety, and care
The group has also established some values around which the programme will be built, including:
Te Tiriti alignment, with cultural and spiritual dimensions embedded throughout
Non-stigmatising language aligned with international standards
Independent facilitation of content development and group work
A Steering Group with key tangata whenua representation providing leadership and governance
This project builds on years of community-led practice and training by groups within the rōpū. Many of us are already delivering workshops to diverse audiences — valuable work that’s increasingly in demand, but difficult to sustain with limited funding and capacity.
So we’re making the leap to online. We’re beyond excited to be exploring this and to keep developing these ideas further. The next step is securing funding to bring this vision to life. We are currently working on funding applications and proposals to find this support. So keep an eye on this space! If you know of funding sources or would like to support the project, we’d love to hear from you! You can reach us at caseys@knowyourstuff.nz.
