The issue of harm reduction is something first-year Bachelor of Arts student Ania Bylinksi became intimately familiar with in her previous career.
Prior to coming to MacEwan, Bylinski was a primary care paramedic with Alberta Health Services. During her time on the ambulance, she could only provide short-term assistance or support to many of the people that she was treating.
“Being out on the road and seeing just how prevalent the opioid epidemic is, along with the mental health crisis, I realized that I could only impact individuals’ lives very temporarily in my line of work. I want to be able to develop relationships and guide people through their journey of healing,” she says.
For Bylinski, the Coalition for Harm Reduction at MacEwan (CHARM) is a way to provide tools for people to learn about harm reduction, and reduce the number of people who require the emergency intervention she offered as a paramedic. She started volunteering with the organization in her first semester. CHARM provides MacEwan students with campus and community resources about substance use, recovery from addiction and training in how to give Naloxone to a person experiencing an opioid overdose.
“The reality is that most students are going to experiment with substances, and sex. . Rather than discouraging them – which can influence the individuals to rebel and partake in risky behavior – harm reduction offers an educational approach on how to experiment safely,” says Bylinski. “By offering educational resources, we can encourage students to keep themselves and others out of harm's way. ”
In March, Bylinski assisted at the Harm Reduction Resource Fair, an annual event that engages and educates MacEwan students on the topic.
“If you are educated about substances, regardless of what they may be, you can then bring that knowledge into your social circle and spread awareness amongst your peers,” she says. “I think having these hands-on activities really speaks to all. Whether you learn better by viewing, listening, touching or feeling, you can understand what substance use could potentially feel like and how to mitigate the associated risks.”
Her experience with both Alberta Health Services and CHARM both influenced Bylinski’s plans to major in psychology.
“My end goal is to become a counseling psychologist, specializing in trauma and PTSD.”
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