As with any group of humans, some of the people who access harm reduction are violent towards others and, moreover, they occasionally disclose this to harm reduction workers—in part because harm reduction services and spaces offer non-judgmental environments in which people often feel safe enough to disclose their violence, or they may be so agitated that they share their feelings of wanting to commit violence in the moment.

These disclosures are some of the most difficult that harm reduction workers face. Because so many of us are survivors of abuse, dealing with other people who disclose having been abusive is often the most challenging thing that we deal with in our work.

The first thing to remember in those situations is to keep yourself centered through breathing techniques or other methods so that you can focus on continuing to provide services to the person. Please note that you do not have to approve of their behavior, and should not act as if you do. But it’s best if you are not confrontational about it.

This is for two reasons, say leaders—first for your own safety, but also for the safety of potential victims. Confronting or shaming someone who is abusive can often make them lash out at people who are most vulnerable to them. As difficult as that is, the most functionally useful thing to do in those situations is to continue providing services in a non-judgmental manner while remaining neutral about the disclosure. If you cannot do this, if it is beyond your capacity to continue to provide services to someone who discloses they are abusive in a non-judgmental and compassionate way, it is your responsibility to find someone else who can.

Harm reduction leaders were universal in their commitment to providing services, even to the most difficult or problematic members of the community, as long as their behavior was not directed at the harm reduction workers themselves. The reason for this is because harm reductionists universally believe everyone is worth saving.

Beyond that, we are not law enforcement—it is not our “lane”, our style, or within the principles of harm reduction, to confront or punish people for their problematic behavior. Our job is to keep people alive long enough to make better choices for their own well-being. We know by providing people with different tools, better information, and a different, more loving, approach, that people do change their deeply problematic behaviors—and that includes being violent or abusive.

In the second case, where people are threatening immediate violence towards others, it is important to use many of the de-escalation techniques in the next section on immediate de-escalation, including to get people thinking abstractly, to breathe, and to “get on the same page” with them. If you can get the person talking about potential consequences they would face, like catching charges or violating their probation, were they to follow through, you help distract them from being violent, even if they feel it is warranted or even necessary.