Hospitality House
Celia, Melissa, Abigail, Jia, Tara, and newest staff member Yalith continue our incredibly skilled and compassionate therapy work at Hospitality House, a multi-site community drop-in, shelter, employment, art, and community-building program.  Hospitality House recently celebrated its 50th anniversary – they opened during the Summer of Love to welcome the many young people converging on San Francisco to celebrate music and freedom.  We have been with them for 15 of those 50 years offering individual and group therapy and support for disability benefits, housing, medical care and other essential components of a stable life.

Office Based Opioid Treatment Programs (OBOT)
Abigail continues her work with the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Addiction Medicine team and at the 6th Street Needle Exchange/Harm Reduction Center (SF AIDS Foundation), working specifically with people who use opioid drugs, or those who are close to them.  Patt provides clinical consultation to the nursing and outreach team.

San Mateo County HIV Clinics
Sara continues our 10-year relationship with the HIV clinics at the San Mateo County Hospital, providing invaluable harm reduction therapy in the context of a medical clinic.

Private Practice
Maurice, Diana, Leticia, Randy, Sara, independent affiliates Erica and Caitlin and, of course, Patt hold down our fee-for-service practice, working with people who have the means to pay for their therapy and who choose harm reduction therapy as their preferred way of working on their relationship with drugs.  Medical partners Jen Birch and Barry Zevin offer medication assisted treatment to clients who need it.

Navigation Center

In January Diana began working at San Francisco’s newest Navigation Center, part of a San Francisco system of shelters to invite whole encampments of people, with their possessions and their animals, into transitional shelter while they await more permanent housing arrangements.  Sadly, San Francisco is so woefully short of housing, and even more short of affordable housing, that options for next steps are limited.

Training

Highlight from the 12th National Harm Reduction conference
Leticia , Diana, Maurice, Demaree Miller (At The Crossroads) , Jia, and Mary Howe (HYA) presented a blockbuster topic: “Come As You Are, Even If You’re a Racist,” wrangling with the dilemma of being radically accepting of people who are not themselves accepting of everyone.

Writing

Decarcerating America
“Mass incarceration is destroying hundreds of communities and millions of families across America,” says Ernest Drucker, editor of Decarcerating America.  Jeannie and Maurice, along with New York colleagues Jenifer Talley, Scott Kellogg, and Sheila Vakharia, contributed a chapter called Dealing with drug Use After Prison: Harm Reduction Therapy.  The book covers a wide range of topics:  from prevention and alternatives to incarceration, to shortening sentences and focusing on rehabilitation and health, to helping people successfully reenter the community post-incarceration.  This is a critical issue—mass incarceration is the civil rights issue of our day.