What is a harm reduction mindset and why are we working to cultivate it in SMART?
By: Pete Rubinas, Executive Director
Over the past few months, we’ve engaged in several activities to move the needle on SMART fully living up to its commitment to meet individuals where they’re at when they arrive in our meetings. We had keynote and breakout sessions on the topic at our National Conference. It was the main topic of conversation at the Volunteer Month Town Hall. I sent an email on Memorial Day. And it was the subject of our Facilitator Lunch & Learn earlier this month. In those conversations, we have used the term “harm reduction” and referred to the goal of getting more people in our community to adopt a “harm reduction mindset” when facilitating our meetings.
Regardless of the language that someone uses to describe addictive behavior, whether it is rooted more in medicalized or behavioral terms, we understand that the challenges created by addictive behaviors occur on a continuum, from having no problem at all with a behavior to having a significant problem. When I and the organization speak of harm reduction, we are referring to any changes in behavior that are helping an individual gain independence from their addictive behavior, without the condition of a future abstinence goal. Visually, this can be represented as follows: | 
