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Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma

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Harm reduction work is emotionally demanding. This section offers guides and frameworks for recognising, addressing, and mitigating burnout, secondary trauma, and fatigue—so you can sustain yourself and your team in the long run.

Tend Academy and the Tend Academy Resource Library

Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project

Department of Justice Office of Victims of Crime and Vicarious Trauma Toolkit

Books

The Burnout Challenge, Christina Maslach & Michael P Leiter

Help for the Helper, Babette Rothschild

Reducing Secondary Traumatic Stress, Brian C. Miller

Other sets of external resources including toolkits, practical guides, and deep-dive materials on topics like de-escalation, mental health support, participant accountability, overdose response, and more:

Featured Hacks

These featured hacks highlight creative, practical solutions from harm reduction leaders on the ground. From DIY tools to clever workarounds, each one reflects the ingenuity, care, and real-world experience that keeps this movement alive. 

Post-Exposure Prophylaxis Hacks

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Though largely unsupported by scientific evidence, the dangers of needle stick injury loom large in the popular imagination. As a result, the emotional response to needle stick injury can be intense even if, statistically, the risks are quite low. For this reason, if no other, it’s essential that harm reduction organizations be prepared for how they might deal with such an eventuality.
Read this Hack

Creating and Defining Community

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Over and over, harm reduction leaders interviewed for Space Hacks centered the creation of community as central to their efforts to create safe, humane harm reduction spaces services that are trauma-informed and minimize the potential for escalated situations.
Read this Hack