The Public Defender Association, along with a number of co-sponsors (including Real Change, Capitol Hill Community Council, People’s Harm Reduction Alliance, ACLU-WA, Hep C Education Project, and SKCCH) have organized a Town Hall event on drug user health, harm reduction, and safe injection facilities for November 13 at 7:00 pm in Town Hall – 1119 8th Ave. Seattle, WA 98101
The Town Hall event will include a screening of the film “Everywhere But Safe: Public Injecting in New York“, followed by a panel discussion with the film makers and local experts. We are very excited for the panel, which will include Chloe Gale (REACH/ETS), as well as Caleb Banta-Green (ADAI), Eric Seitz (public health nurse, former IV drug user), Shiloh Murphy (People’s Harm Reduction Alliance), Matt Curtis (VOCAL-NY), and Vivek Chaudhary (Urban Survivors Union). It will be a great opportunity to not only learn more about the campaign for safe injection spaces in New York, but also to discuss the current landscape in Seattle and how we might move forward in addressing the public health needs of injection drug users using innovative harm reduction approaches.
Hope you all can make it! And please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions!
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/461068044096096/463737353829165/
Additional language/speaker bios below.
Drug use is increasingly obvious in the Seattle area and fatal overdoses and injection related health problems are increasing. We need to do more and need to consider a broad array of responses.
“In the Seattle area 2 people per week die from an opiate overdose (heroin/prescription). Heroin users and those dying are increasingly young adults. These same young adults are more likely to share syringes with others. Proven interventions are available to reduce syringe sharing and fatal overdoses”, Caleb Banta-Green, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, University of Washington. “We can save lives and improve outcomes by treating addiction as a disease and not a crime. It’s time to start the conversation about safe-injection and harm reduction here in Seattle.” Tim Harris, Founding Director, Real Change.
Supervised injection facilities have the capacity to reduce negative health effects and the spread of disease for drug users. First adopted as a strategy in Switzerland in the 1980s and now found in other parts of Europe, Canada, and Australia, nearly 100 SIFs exist worldwide. The short documentary “Everywhere But Safe” illustrates the effects of public drug use–including overdose deaths and infectious disease transmission. Following the film screening, a panel discussion will explore public drug use, harm reduction, and safe injection sites in Seattle and take questions and comments from the audience.
The panel discussion will include:
Taeko Frost, MPH, (Moderator. Film Maker): Taeko has had the privilege to hear and be part of so many life stories of people who use drugs over the years. Her favorite documentary, Titicut Follies by Fred Wiseman, is the perfect example of how film and storytelling can expose injustice and call for action. One of those calls to action is to recognize and address public injection drug use by supporting the integration of supervised injection facilities in NYC. To start telling that story, she co-directed the film “Everywhere But Safe: Public Injecting in New York” with her talented colleague and friend Matt Curtis. She has worked in public health and HIV prevention for over a decade and is currently the Executive Director of Washington Heights CORNER Project, a syringe exchange program in uptown Manhattan.
Matt Curtis, MPH (panelist, Fim Maker): Matt’s first step into film making came through interning on the Frontline documentary The Lost American in 1997, which inadvertently led to a career in harm reduction in Eastern Europe, Asia, and more recently the United States. He got involved with Sawbuck to produce Reach for Me: Fighting to End the American Drug Overdose Epidemic, and then did soundtrack work for other Sawbuck films and co-directed the film Everywhere But Safe: Public Injecting in New York with the great Taeko Frost. Most of the time, though, he is Policy Director at VOCAL New York, a grassroots, community organizing-based political organization that works to end the war on drugs, the HIV and Hepatitis C epidemics, and mass incarceration.
Eric Seitz (panelist): Eric is a street outreach public health nurse, works with homeless families and individuals in King County struggling to access housing, medical/mental health treatment, and employment. Eric is a former IV drug user, being homeless himself in Seattle and Vancouver BC for many years, he eventually landed in Harborview for months due to a fast-spreading case of Necrotizing fasciitis, also called “flesh-eating disease”. He continues to promote and advocate for safe-drug use practices, housing justice, overdose prevention, and implementation of regional safe-use facilities.
Chloe Gale, MSW (panelist): Chloe has been working with homeless adults with additions and mental health disorders for over 23 years. She helped develop the REACH Program in Seattle, which provides street outreach, case management, and multi-disciplinary services to chronically homeless adults with substance use disorders. Since 2011, REACH has partnered with police and prosecutors to provide street-based harm reduction services to individuals who have been diverted from through the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) Program.
Caleb Banta-Green, PhD (panelist): Caleb is a Senior Research Scientist at the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute as well as an Affiliate Associate Professor at the School of Public Health, University of Washington. He conducts research on drug user health services and interventions. He is also actively involved in public health efforts and policy initiatives to improve the health of drug users.
Vivek Chaudhary (panelist): Vivek Chaudhary is a long time officer of the Urban Survivors Union which is Seattle’s longest standing drug user union. He has worked tirelessly to assist drug users in having their voices heard, and in challenging the stigma resulting from the War on drugs. He has been both treasurer and secretary of the Seattle chapter of the USU, and has also assumed roles in the local and national leadership of the Urban Survivors Union and most importantly Vivek is proud to be a drug user.
Shilo Murphy (panelist): Shilo Murphy is a former homeless person and long-time resident of Seattle’s University District. He has worked at the University District needle exchange program for the past 18 years and is a co-founder and executive director of the People’s Harm Reduction Alliance. Shilo is also a co-founder of the Urban Survivors’ Union which is Seattle’s drug user union. Most importantly, he is a proud drug user.
