For Ruby Moon, harm reduction is deeply personal.
Her daughter was struggling with addiction, and nothing she had been taught about helping people with addiction felt right.
“I’d only been taught tough love,” Moon said. “As a mom, it didn’t feel right that somehow I had to feel guilty about giving her money for a motel or food. How do you balance wanting your baby to be better and that tough love that everyone tells you is the only road to recovery?”
Then she started working on hepatitis C prevention work and learned more about the importance of the availability of sterile syringes to reduce infections among people who use drugs. She also attended a national harm reduction conference where she “learned a different way of doing business.” From there, she started distributing naloxone, sterile syringe kits, face masks, socks, sleeping bags and beanies to build trust in the community.
Moon continued to lead in educating her field about harm reduction, hosting three virtual conferences on harm reduction between 2020 and 2023, which attracted 600 people in its first year. When Save Lives Oregon launched in 2021, Siletz Community Health Clinic became one of the pilot partners for the Harm Reduction Clearinghouse.
As a Tribal clinic, culture is a prominent part of care.
“Culture is prevention,” Moon said. “We felt strongly that the opposite of addiction is connection. You could move away but there’s always a way back.”
Whereas county health departments would host public events to offer HIV testing, Siletz offered testing in private. In order to build trust, they’d offer testing for months, before anyone would show up.
Naloxone and sterile syringe kits also include culture, such as sage, lavender, teas and local art – sending a message that wellness includes spiritual health.
Siletz Community Health Clinic has been on the cutting edge in Lincoln County, being the first to offer medication-assisted treatment as well as the first to distribute naloxone. Being the first can be lonely and challenging, but Save Lives Oregon has provided an important support system, Moon said.
“People don’t talk about it, but this work is hard and it can be a big risk,” Moon said. “Save Lives Oregon brought together a group of experts who told me, ‘I’ve been there.’”
After receiving harm reduction and work skills development, Moon’s daughter is now more than four years into recovery and providing peer support to others in treatment.
