Addiction Medicine Grand Rounds (Special Session): The Harm Reduction Gap - Implications for Public Health and Medical Providers

The Yale Program in Addiction Medicine is pleased to welcome Sheila Vakharia, PhD, MSW, as speaker for a special session of Addiction Medicine Grand Rounds on April 11, 2024.

This event will be held in a hybrid format, in-person and online.

Title: The Harm Reduction Gap - Implications for Public Health and Medical Providers

Learning Objectives:

1. Summarize the key elements of the current approach to drug prevention and drug treatment that have created the “harm reduction gap” in the continuum of care
2. Describe the 6 key harm reduction elements that can be incorporated into the continuum of care to close the harm reduction gap
3. Explain how drug criminalization created the harm reduction gap and contributed to the HIV/AIDS crisis and the overdose crisis in the United States
4. Discuss how public health and medical professionals can help close the harm reduction gap in their work

Sheila P. Vakharia, PhD, MSW, is the Deputy Director of Research and Academic Engagement. In this role, she helps DPA staff and others understand a range of drug policy issues. Dr. Vakharia builds relationships with drug researchers and helps to advance policy-relevant research. She also mobilizes researchers in support of DPA policy campaigns and organizes conferences on key issues in drug policy. Dr. Vakharia is the author of The Harm Reduction Gap: Helping Individuals Left Behind by Conventional Drug Prevention and Abstinence-Only Addiction Treatment with Routledge. Before joining DPA, Dr. Vakharia was an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Long Island University. She has also worked as a clinical social worker in both abstinence-only and harm reduction settings. Her research interests include harm reduction therapy, drug policy reform, drug stigma, overdose prevention, and social work education. She is on the Board of Directors of Filter magazine. Dr. Vakharia received a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Florida International University, a Master’s in Social Work from Binghamton University, and a Post-Master’s Certificate in Addictions from New York University.

Addiction Medicine Rounds are CME accredited. Each session will be assigned 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM.