Teaching Note—Substance Use Education to Improve Harm Reduction Attitudes: Preparing Social Workers to Advance Public Health

Abstract

ABSTRACT Social workers can help advance public health through increased acceptability of harm reduction principles and practices. This study evaluated Master of Social Work students’ attitudes towards harm reduction before and after a substance use and social work practice course and assessed differences in students’ attitude outcomes across multiple course instructors. Harm reduction attitudes were assessed using the Harm Reduction Acceptability Scale (HRAS). Results indicated that students exhibited more favorable attitudes towards harm reduction after course completion and experienced consistent learning about harm reduction across multiple sections/instructors. This has implications for integrating standardized health-related content within social work curricula to improve attitudes towards harm reduction and to encourage more widespread adoption of public health approaches for substance use.